Google has launched a new service for trend monitoring geeks who find this info important. Bloggers are the most likely user of this service, called Google Insights for Search.

With Google Insights for Search, you can investigate popular searches, compare the popularity of different searches and get a general insight into the zeitgeist.

As of today, Insights also offers a couple of new services. You can now see forecasts of future search trends for certain queries, based on an extrapolation of historical trends and search patterns. In addition, you can now visualize the way interest in given terms has changed over time, using the animated map feature. These maps show an animated depiction of how search interest changes over time in different locations.

Whether you are an advertiser looking to expand keyword lists, an economist analyzing economic trends, or even if you are just looking to settle a popularity contest, Google Insights for Search can help provide the answers. With insights you can:

• See projected future interest in a given term – using the forecasting feature, you can see a forecast of future searches for many different queries.
• See an animated map - watch the way global interest in a particular subject has changed over time.
• Embed comparison charts on your website - you can now easily embed any of the graphs produced by Insights for Search in your website.
• Search trends over time - See how user interest rises and falls around a particular subject. Type in more than one keyword, separated by a comma, to compare keyword popularity.
• Regional interest – See which countries, cities and regions are most interested in a certain topic; click on a part of the heat-map to see more about search volume in a specific region.
• Top and rising related searches – find out what queries related to your own are most popular, and which ones are gaining in popularity.
• Refine your insights searches by category – see top searches in a category–rising searches in ‘Celebrities’, for example, or popular searches in ‘Vehicle Brands’. Specify by date, region or subject to get more detailed results. You can also find the general trends in a category by not entering any search term at all, giving you a broad view of trends in that category.

“Insights for Search offers a glimpse into the spirit of the times,” said Yossi Matias, Director of the Google Israel R&D Center, where Trends and Insights for Search are developed. “What the world is searching for offers an insight into what’s interesting to people around the world. An understanding of broad as well as particular trends can be useful for advertisers, marketers, economists and everyday people interested in knowing more about their world.”

To check out Google Insights for Search, go to www.google.com/insights/search