On June 17th, 2015, Google announced the most significant Google Trends update to come in the past three years (2012). Google Trends is now offering, real-time data on what people are searching for at this precise moment.
Google has implemented these changes based on feedback from everyday trend trackers, journalists and researchers. Not only will the minute-by-minute data in Google Trends show what people are searching for at the moment, but it will also, track where in the world these searches are tracking from.
According to Google,
You can now explore minute-by-minute, real-time data behind the more than 100 billion searches that take place on Google every month, getting deeper into the topics you care about
When major events, such as, the NBA finals, Oscars or Superbowl Predictions are trending, you can now track the stories most people are searching for. In addition, you can now explore data concerning these trends within the last week by utilizing the date picker.
Google Trends has also redesigned their homepage to show users a ranked, real-time list of it’s trending stories, that are gaining with popularity within the Google search engine. This new homepage documents the considerations of Google News and YouTube, as well, for a better understanding of what stories are trending across the web. This redesigned homepage is already available in 28 countries around the world and Google has confirmed they will be adding more locations in the months to come.
Google Trends will now provide better data for deeper insights, by covering niche topics in smaller geographical areas. Google explained how committed they are at curating headlines that matter the most, by stating,
To help you understand the data behind the headlines, our News Lab team examines trending topics every day and finds interesting nuggets of data that bring news stories to life. You can follow us on Twitter to stay up to date. And for data journalists who want to do their own analysis, starting today we’ll publish data sets on specific topics to our Github page.
Below is a video from some of the partners explaining how excited they are to contribute to the growing trend of data-driven storytelling, the role of data in their field of work and how it and they, are helping to shape the future in their field!