I just found out about this nifty tool. It helps you to spot trends by analyzing the world of blogs!
Put in a search term, and you'll get a nice graph out (of up to the last 6 months), telling you how many times that term has been mentioned.
You can see clear "spikes" for some obvious "time-sensitive" news... For example, try it with the search terms "Mel Gibson", "Snakes on a Plane", and "Steve Irwin" - and you'll see what I mean!
Check it out yourself...
http://www.blogpulse.com/trend
(You only need to put in a "Display Label" if you put in more than one search term...)
By the way, the same web site has another nifty tool too... They call it a "conversation tracker". You can see how a post on one blog gets picked up by other blogs... It's pretty nifty.
http://www.blogpulse.com/conversation
Let us know if you spot any interesting trends!
- Dien