The latest Google Trends update makes it easier to search for popular topics

Dec 4, 2013 10:24 GMT  ·  By

Google knows just how useful its tools are and has just updated Google Trends to include topic predictions and more search options.

According to the company’s announcement, Google Trends now adds topic reports. The new feature should allow an easier measuring of search interest in people, places and things. Although still in beta, the tool offers predictions in some 700,000 unique topics.

From now on, typing into the search box will prompt the appearance of new topic predictions that should help users make a better comparison between the queries.

“When you look up ‘rice,’ are you measuring search interest in Rice University or the rice you eat? When you look up ‘Gwyneth Paltrow’ how can you be sure you're counting all the common misspellings? Starting today, you'll find new topic reports to help you more easily measure search interest in the people, places and things you care about,” Google states about the new feature.

So, the new tools should work with misspelled search items, as well as various other nicknames associated with an actress, for instance. When it comes to Gwyneth Paltrow, Google also indicates that it could even include in the tally searches for “Lead actress in Iron Man” or similar other things.

This should help create a more clear picture of what people are looking for on any given day, even when those searches are a little more ambiguous.

The feature is currently available in Brazil, France, Germany, India, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States, but could be rolled out in the entire world in the coming months.

“Topic reports are a beta feature and we want to get your feedback. To start, you'll find data for more than 700,000 unique topics from Barack Obama to football (soccer) to Hayao Miyazaki, and you can slice the data to measure search interest worldwide or in any of the following seven countries: Brazil, France, Germany, India, Italy, UK, and US. We'll continue to improve the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the data, and as we do we'll add topics and expand to support new regions,” the company notes.