What Are People Searching For?

Get the top 20 most searched terms being searching for on Google. Drill down on a specific search term to discover blog entries, articles and search volume index. At this time, trends go back as far as the week of May 15, 2007.

What are the hottest terms on Google today?
http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends

Doc Spot Finds Local Physicians

Looking for a local physician or hospital? I always envisioned a search engine that located doctors/medical facilities in my neighborhood. Now the wish has been granted. Doc Spot is in the first phase of its launch, but the site does an incredible job.

Doc Spot searches for doctors or hospitals:

• Browse by location and specialty
• Find a provider by name
• Search by condition or procedure

http://www.docspot.com/

Google’s Doodles

Do you know what a Google Doodle is? Every time you visit Google’s homepage you are seeing a Doodle. Each day the Google’s logo aka Doodle morphs to celebrate something culturally significant. Clicking on the Google Doodle links to a string of related search results on that topic.

In the past, the 30th anniversary of Pac-man was featured as a fully functional video game which created a buzz. Recently, Lucille Ball’s 100th birthday was celebrated with an old-fashioned TV that displayed a video tribute of I Love Lucy. What excitement will Google bring us next? Stay tuned for more Doodles by making Google your homepage.

http://www.google.com/logos/

Google Instant

You may have noticed Google Instant and not even known it. Google Instant is a game-changer because it helps show the right links more quickly. When you start to type in “keywords” into the Google search box, the terms you are searching for, results instantly begin appear. You can also click on the magnifying glass to get a quick snapshot of the site. Google fills in the blanks. You now don't have to click through a series of links to get a result.

For marketers this has created a dilemma because the search process has been accelerated. This means users will now be typing in less search words to narrow down their search. This also means less paid search real estate which amplifies the significance of being in the top few spots in search results.

http://www.google.com/instant

Google Search Insights Tool

Google has done it again when it comes to free search analytics tools with Insights. You can perform keyword research tool by region, download reports by excel and best yet, it”s free and open. Your business can only grow if people can find you and Google is still the number one search engine, so make yourself found! After you've tried this service, please give us your review of Insights.

http://www.google.com/insights/search/

Mahalo Answers

Looking for a fun and easy way to share knowledge? Mahalo Answers allows for you to ask questions and allows for users to answer them. Search their database or drill down through their categories. If you are familiar with Yahoo Answers, then you will get a bang out of Mahalo Answers.

http://www.mahalo.com/answers

Bing Visual Search

Looking for a visual way to search online? You need to try Bing visual search. Search entertainment, famous people, online media, reference, shopping, sports and travel visually. The top five searches are movies in theaters, digital cameras, travel destinations,top songs and top albums.

The only drawback is that it requires you download the plug-in SilverLight. This plug-in was created by Microsoft to essentially compete with Flash as an interactive way to display content online.

http://www.bing.com/visualsearch

Triple Ply Search

Why use one search engine when you can use three at once? With Search 3, the screen is divided into three distinct columns delivering results from three popular search engines simultaneously. Google, Twitter and Bing are defaulted, however you can also choose Yahoo and Ebay as options too. This mash-up delivers a clean interface and scannable results.

http://www.search3.com

Thanks to Todd Bertsch of Evolve Creative Group for the find.

Get Found, Make Your Google Profile

Do you Google yourself? Or should I say, how often do you Google yourself? If you don’t know what I am talking about, then try typing your name into Google and see what results come up. Most of the time the search results don’t pull up anything remotely related to you or they pull up someone else with the same name. Now Google has given you the power to build your own profile.

When someone does a search for your name now, Google will insert your profile at the bottom of the first page. All you need to do is sign-up for a Google Account to create your free profile and get found. Thanks to Amber Mac for the tip on Google Profiles via her weekly techology news show.

http://www.google.com/profiles/

Need Software, No Cash?

Before making the next big software purchase, check out Source Forge.

You just might be surprised what you don’t have to pay for.

My Home Computers run Win XP, at work its Mac OSX. I even run Ubuntu at times. Sourceforge has software for everybody.

I needed to convert some video files and then make a DVD. At Work the Mac has built in options. At Home I needed solutions. I was able to find open source software at http://sourceforge.net/ for converting my video files and make the DVD with menus.

Everything was found, installed and going within a half hour.

George Jetson here I come.