How to spot trends on the internet....
 

Here are a couple of useful web sites to help spot trends in what the public has a big interest in....

There's the Lycos Top 50 web searches.... You can see what people are searching for (ranked by popularity), and where that search term was last week, and how long it's been in the "charts"!

For example, as I'm writing this I noticed that the search term "Michael Jackson" just entered the charts at number 39! With his new concerts and an upcoming album he's heading back into the public consciousness.... Sticking to entertainment, I also noticed that the no. 1 search term at the moment is "Aaliyah", who recently tragically died in an accident....

I also noticed "Halloween" just went up from no. 33 to no. 24, as the day creeps closer.... "Soccer" also newly entered at no. 33, but I don't know what the cause is.... Has there been a big soccer match somewhere?

Google also has a related page to check out, but this time it's the top 10 in terms of *gains*.... What's gaining popularity as a search term the fastest?

It's fascinating to see what's going on in the public consciousness.... :)

One way to use this is to tie into certain events. For example, noticing that Halloween is rising as a search term is a reminder that you can tie into this event with your promotions.... Have a special "Halloween" promotion, for example. Any other ideas on how to use this kind of information?

- Dien Rice