Surprise!  Google has another beta application out – Google Trends.
It allows you to check the popularity of search terms over time, and to
see where those searches were most popular.  You can also compare
keywords against one another.  It can be pretty addicting.

The long-term business value is even more exciting.  In theory, an index of search terms captures what Wired founder John Battelle calls "the database of intentions" – consumers are telegraphing their interests and their concerns.  It’s the same technology that helps Google place AdWords. 

Now Google has made a part of this service free to the public.  As usual, this poses a (vague) competitive threat to existing players in the online trend-watching space, companies like Nielsen’s BuzzMetrics, which take a more granular view by trawling consumer generated media with a combination of spidering and human analysis.

Read more in The New York Times.

Misha Cornes