# A new layer to Google Trends

> [!IMPORTANT]
> It's been a while since we published this blog post. Some of the information may be outdated (for example, some images may be missing, and some links may not work anymore).

Friday, June 20, 2008


[Two years ago](https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/yes-we-are-still-all-about-search.html),
we launched
[Google Trends](https://www.google.com/trends), a tool that lets
anyone see what the world is searching for, and compare the world's interest in your favorite
topics.
[Last year](https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/whats-hot-today.html),
we added
[Hot Trends](https://www.google.com/trends/hottrends), which
shows what people are searching for right now---the fastest rising search queries on Google,
updated every hour. And just
[last week](https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/new-flavor-of-google-trends.html),
we introduced normalized search volume numbers available for export in Google Trends.


Today, we add a new layer to Trends with
[Google Trends for Websites](https://trends.google.com/websites),
a fun tool that gives you a view of how popular your favorite websites are, including your own!
It also compares and ranks site visitation across geographies, and related websites and searches.


Let's take a look at one example, the release of Radiohead's
[In Rainbows](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_rainbows)
album. As part of our annual
[Zeitgeist](https://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2007/),
we post the fastest rising search terms, and this past year,
*radiohead*
took the crown as the fastest rising search term in the last quarter of 2007.


Using Google Trends, we can see the search volume for
[*radiohead* compared to *in rainbows* over the last 12 months](https://www.google.com/trends?q=radiohead,+in+rainbows&ctab=0&geo=all&date=ytd&sort=0).
![relative search volume comparison between radiohead and in rainbows](https://developers.google.com/static/search/blog/images/import/9f13587dbe9c51706f892d319d5bcf9a.jpg)


With Hot Trends, we can see that on
[October 10th](https://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?sa=X&date=2007-10-10)
(the release date of *In Rainbows*), people were most interested
in
[downloading](https://google.com/trends/hottrends?q=radiohead+downloads&date=2007-10-10&sa=X)
*In Rainbows* and
[reviews](https://google.com/trends/hottrends?q=in+rainbows+review&date=2007-10-10&sa=X)
of the new release.


Now, using Trends for Websites, this story can be viewed from another perspective: we can see how
the number of unique visitors that visit *radiohead.com* and
*inrainbows.com* has changed over the last 12 months, the
countries where the sites are most popular, the top related sites and search terms.
![relative search volume comparison between radiohead.com and in rainbows.com](https://developers.google.com/static/search/blog/images/import/03ddec03a4e4589011be23f975894750.jpg)


We can see that in October 2007,
*radiohead.com* (the blue line) saw a huge surge in popularity.
The release of *In Rainbows* clearly drove many people to visit
the band's website. The album's website, *inrainbows.com*
(the red line), saw an even more dramatic jump; probably because that is where you could actually
download the new album. And, it looks like site traffic to
*radiohead.com* has increased overall, even as
*inrainbows.com* traffic declined.


Keep in mind that Trends for Websites is a
[Google Labs](https://labs.google.com/)
product and that we are experimenting with ways to improve the quality of the data. Because data
is estimated and aggregated over a variety of sources, it may not match the other data sources
you rely on for web traffic information. For more information, be sure to check out our
[Website Owners FAQs](https://www.google.com/intl/en/trends/websites/help/index.html#owners).


To start using Trends for Websites, head over to
[Google Trends](https://trends.google.com/websites).

Written by R.J. Pittman, Director of Product Management - Consumer Search Properties