Google Trends Welcoming Baby Brother

Using Google Trends is a good way to relax or to waste time in case you're not typing in the queries for real and have some real interest in the results. It is a service that allows you to compare the words you insert in the search box with what users have been searching for, over a specified period of time. There were Search Trends and Music Trends pages up and running by yesterday, but today they have been added a baby brother: Google Checkout Trends.

What it does is basically "aggregate the sales data of Google Checkout merchants and charts it in a matter of seconds", as the product's blog explained. There won't be a change in the way results are displayed, still no numbers, just the revenue evolution over time. Furthermore, to make the users' experience more familiar, using the dynamic Flash graphs that are well known from Google Finance, there's been a slider added to help filter the results based on price.

If the above talk sounds too fancy, here's breaking it down to you: It just shows what people are buying or selling online via Google Checkout. It's not so difficult to understand and it's even easier to use, the process you already know from the previous "Trends": you plug in one keyword or several, separated by a comma, and it will present a comparison of them.

"If you're interested in how sales of Batman or Spider Man paraphernalia compare, or are wondering just how popular Ugg boots are these days, visit Checkout Trends for a glimpse into online shopping. Go ahead and try it out - and get creative with the searches. You may be surprised at what you find", is how David Wurtz, the Product Manager ends the blog entry.