Google Trends, a Powerful Tool

Google is the world’s most popular search engine. Want to know when the next snowfall will arrive in Calgary? What about the spread of the coronavirus epidemic? How about a recipe for apple pie? These are just three of the about five billion daily searches on Google, accounting for an astounding 90.5% of all searches on the internet.

The question arises as to how to make sense of these searches. Are some items searched more often than others? Are some searched seasonally? Can searches be categorized—for example, relating to book purchases?

These questions have more than a curiosity appeal, given that Google’s ad revenue amounted to $135 billion in 2019. There is big money to spend, and to make, with Google. Having the ability to use Google in marketing and promotion affects every business with an on-line presence, and even for purposes other than sales.

For example, a blogger may want to know what the hottest trends are in fashion. An epidemiologist may want to investigate the country with the most searches per capita of a virus. A marketer would like to know if the band he’s promoting is trending in a particular province.

Fortunately, for the common man or woman, there is a tool to help search searches. Google Trends was launched in 2006, but only became the robust tool that it is today in 2012.

To use Google Trends, one needs to enter the following website: trends.google.com. On the website, there is an “Explore” bar, where one can put in the search terms. For example, I chose the United States as my geographic region, entered “Apple Pie,” and several sections showed up. One, “Interest over Time” revealed a large spike in the search for this term in the last week of November which, being Thanksgiving in America, makes sense. The next section showed that Pennsylvania, for some reason, evinced the greatest interest for “Apple Pie.” Google Trends also allow you to compare searches: I compared ‘Apple Pie recipe’ with ‘Cherry pie recipe.’ The winner: Cherry pie, by a mile! 

More powerfully, it also allows searches by categories, such as Books, Games, Education, and so on. What about the hottest trends? Google Trends has a section that lists the top twenty of searches, by day, of all topics. On another page, called ‘Real Time Trends,’ shows the number of searches in real time, per hour, in a graph of the top searches.

A very simple use of Google Trends would be in Search Engine Optimization: the use of terms that would generate the greatest interest in a blog, a website or a product description. But Google Trends has turned out to be a lot more subtle and revealing than many expected. For example, the search ‘is my son gifted?’ was shown to be more popular then ‘is my daughter gifted?’ Similarly, the search ‘Is my daughter overweight?’ turned up more times than ‘Is my son overweight?’ Searches like these show cultural attitudes in statistically significant ways.

It takes times to become a competent user of Google Trends. Fortunately, over forty free lessons are available on the website itself. For authors, bloggers, businesspersons, or for anyone who is interested in public trends, it is a wonderful tool!

Mohan Ashtakala is the author of "The Yoga Zapper," a fantasy, and "Karma Nation," a literary romance. www.mohanashtakala.com

He is published by Books We Love (www.bookswelove.com)

Writing in a changed world...by Sheila Claydon

My author page at Books We Love

In my book Miss Locatelli, Arabella has to up her game very swiftly to help save the family jewellery business when her grandfather becomes gravely ill. I wonder how many of us will have to step in to do something similar, if not as dramatic, as Covid 19 continues to sweep across the globe. 

Certainly here, where I live in the North West of the UK, many people are already working very differently as they search for ways to keep their businesses going. Local stores that once could rely on the footfall of regular customers for income, have introduced  delivery services. Yoga and Pilates teachers now stream classes online. Childcare nurseries and pre-schools are doing the same with singalongs and fun activities. Bridge clubs are playing online, and, for the less experienced, also providing lessons. All banking is done online and doctors are carrying out most of their consultations online, except to the very vulnerable. Restaurants are now delivering meals to those people isolated at home and providing takeaway for others. Taxi drivers are delivering food. Shop assistants from high end department stores are stacking shelves in supermarkets, while security men have moved from nightclubs to the supermarket carparks to ensure that everyone follows the strict social distancing rules imposed on us all.

Of course we adapt and one of the British ways of adapting is to resort to gallows humour, so dark jokes abound, as do amusing home made videos of whole families singing coronavirus themed songs to well known tunes. And we are surprisingly obedient. Very few people are flouting the guidelines put in place by government as it tries its best to manage the pandemic. Instead we cross the path when we see neighbours approaching on our daily dog walk, and conduct our conversations across a 2-3 meter gap. We socialise online too. Nearly everyone I know speaks to friends and family daily, mostly on Skype or similar, and share meals and drinks across the ether as they chat. My own granddaughter will be 18 next week and plans are already in place for an online all day party where family and friends can check in at any time on a digital platform that will allow them to speak to one another as well as the birthday girl. It won't be the same, but it will still be fun, and thanks to the wonderful delivery drivers who have kept working throughout, she has a lot of presents to open too.

There are so many other ways in which we are all adapting, from downloading newspapers online  instead of looking forward to the ubiquitous daily delivery that was so much part of British life, to young families spending a lot more time with their children, and throughout it all we wonder what will happen when this is all over. Will we revert to our old ways or will some things have changed forever? Only time will tell but I do have a separate question of my own.

Will books change? Will writers find that they are adapting their stories to an altered existence. We have all read stories written in the past century that appear very outdated, where the characters appear less than realistic in both their attitudes and speech. Neither historical fiction nor contemporary, they no longer seem to fit our mindset. Of course fantasy and futuristic novels will still resonate but what about family sagas, contemporary fiction, even crime novels. How will the global pandemic affect them? Will writers be able to produce stories that ignore our changed world...should they? It's a philosophical question that only time can answer.

In the meantime, stay safe everyone.

Book Launch in the Time of Pandemic

                                                     my page at BWL Publishing

With bookstores and libraries closed and book tours canceled, authors with books coming out face the challenge of connecting with potential readers.

But during these times, we also turn to books to raise our spirits and give us comfort. My new novel Mercies of the Fallen is set in another perilous time in America’s history — the Civil War. Ursula and Rowan are both fallen people, plagued with traumatic pasts but facing their troubled times with courage and heart. I hope you’ll find their story uplifting.

And I hope you'll lift a socially distanced virtual glass with me in celebration of publication!