Every week, Google details, via its official blog, some of the most popular search terms from the previous week. It's an insightful read - what trends in search is also, largely, what's trending on social media and other channels, and Google's wrap-up can provide perspective on topics to watch and even consider tapping into with your own marketing efforts.
And while the topics are normally what you'd expect, there are some interesting angles and perspectives highlighted which you may not have considered in wider trends - this week, for example, one of the most searched topics was the Ashley Madison hack. No surprises there, but the actual search queries themselves highlight not only interest in the topic, but what questions people are asking in relation to it.
From the Google post:
"There were more than 1 million searches for [Ashley Madison] on Tuesday, with more than half a million for [Ashley Madison List] as people tried to find out whether someone they knew had a profile."
Curiosity is a powerful driver, but interesting to consider, based on this, just how many people are keen to explore the hack data. I mean, of course, you might want to know if any celebrities or famous people are on there, but do you really want to know if your friends or neighbors - or relatives - are listed? Evidently, the answer is 'yes'.
(Also, FYI, Ashley Madison is not a real person.)
One of the more colorful, and interesting, stories from this week has been the tale of US Presidential candidate 'Deez Nuts' - who's actually a fifteen year-old named Brady Olson, who hails from Iowa.
"Meanwhile, there's a new presidential candidate on the scene in Iowa. A 15-year-old high school sophomore named Brady Olson made quite the splash after he submitted his candidacy with the Federal Election Commission as "Deez Nuts." Not only is he polling at a not-too-shabby 9 percent against Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in North Carolina - Nuts was a trending topic on Twitter and he's surpassed Clinton in search interest, too."
Note the mention of Twitter here - it'll be interesting to see if, with the new Twitter/Google partnership in play, Google might look to incorporate Twitter mentions in with their search results round-up in future.
In terms of the election race proper, immigration was one of the top issues of the week, after Donald Trump said he would overturn the law that grants citizenship to people born in the U.S.
Trump also made Heidi Klum a trending search term after he said the supermodel was "no longer a 10". The remark resulted in more than 200,000 related Google searches, and a witty response from Klum herself.
Other high volume search topics this week were Lieutenant Shaye Haver and Lieutenant Kristen Griest graduating from the Army Ranger School - the first women in history to conquer the grueling course (search interest in Haver and Griest has spiked more than 150X since Tuesday) and a new, surreal, art installation piece from the elusive British creator known as Banksy.
"Dismaland," an art exhibit by the elusive Banksy, and "the U.K.'s most disappointing new visitor attraction," features a derelict castle with a dirty moat,gloomy park attendants, and bizarre works by 50+ artists. After being shrouded in secrecy, the "bemusement park" debuted this week to the tune of 200,000+ searches, and today search interest in Dismaland surpassed that of Disneyland's. (One of searchers' top questions: "What does Disney say about Dismaland?")"
Google's weekly wrap-up offer a quick, easy way to stay on top of search trends and keep up to date with what online audiences are most interested in. While there's not always a brand angle to every topic - and, of course, you can stay on top of trending issues in real-time via most Twitter and Facebook, day-to-day, the additional context added around what specific queries users are submitting to Google on each topic can provide some great insights and intelligence around popular developments.