I came across this topic as I was reviewing a Google capability called Insights that provides information on how Google is being used by the public. It is a useful marketing tool to see how any term is being used around the world in Google searches, what the popularity of the term is over time, and to see the other words being searched with the term. In addition, the tool allows for real-time information to be embedded into web pages as shown below for the search term "Twitter":
Shown in the full graph are occurrences of news worth items and the impact on Google term searches:
- Stars take to Twitter to honor Steve Jobs
- Hackers hijack Twitter accounts of Chavez critics
- Mexico 'Twitter terrorists' freed
- Taliban, NATO spar on Twitter
- Twitter to show more ads
- More ads coming to Facebook and Twitter
- Twitter twist
Insights shows regional interest of where terms are being generated:
Insights also calculates the rising popularity of tweet terms over time:
When the search was done, the following terms were increasing in popularity over the last 7 days:
1. jodie marsh twitter +800%
2. rob gronkowski +350%
3. battlefield 3 twitter +300%
4. bibi jones +300%
5. rob gronkowski twitter +300%
6. battlefield twitter +250%
7. bibi jones twitter +250%
8. kelly rowland twitter +250%
9. courtney stodden twitter +50%
10. howard stern twitter +50%
Finally, Insights shows the top searches occurring on Twitter over a time period:
When the search was done, the following terms had the highest popularity over the last 7 days:
1. how to twitter 100
2. login twitter 80
3. twitter español 70
4. orkut 65
5. search twitter 55
6. tumblr 55
7. tuenti 40
8. twitter en español 40
9. justin bieber twitter 35
10. justin bieber 35
So although the termination of the pipe feeding tweets between Google and Twitter was in the early half of 2011, people still use Google to find information on "how to Twitter", on "logging into Twitter", and on "searching Twitter". Unfortunately, Twitter does not have a robust interface to easily show users this type of information within the Twitter web application.
Google Insights is a useful tool in better understanding how an audience uses search technology for a term. More so, it shows the combination of the term with other terms to understand the semantic usage of the term in searches for better targeting marketing efforts.
I guess "How to Twitter" is a good topic to discuss next, but first I must get some Nutella, bacon, and pudding !
