Google Trends - Stay On Top Of The World

If you have never heard of Google Trends you don't know what you are missing! Google Trends is a tool that you can use to see what people in the world are searching for in real time. I can't tell you how many stories I have discovered through Google Trends way before they ever hit CNN, or any other source just by using their handy IGoogle gadget on my IGoogle homepage. It not just news stories either, it could be any quirky thing that people are searching for. You never know what you are going to run into that is for sure. You can add it to your IGoogle page just by clicking this link.

For those of you who publish blogs like me, this can be an invaluable tool to stay ahead of the public and give them what they want before they even know it. Since Google Trends link directly to sources that are related to that individual Google Trend, you can also generate traffic. Just make sure your page is relevant to the Google Trend and bam your site will show up and you will start to see traffic coming from yet another Google source. You can try out Google Trends right here, just don't forget who sent you there : )Now sure that sounds pretty cool right, but that is just the beginning of the many uses of Google Trends. My favorite use is to compare keywords to see which one gets more search volume. This is an amazingly useful tool when it comes to choosing keywords for Google Adwords or when you are choosing a URL or just a title for your blog post. For example you could compare Coke and Pepsi or Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. You can do more than two keywords at once to like Microsoft, Google, Yahoo. The results are displayed in graph form like the one above, over a period of several years. They even break it down by region, cities and languages. As you can imagine the possible uses for Google Trends is, like the Internet, endless.

What are your thoughts on Google Trends? Do you have any tips or tricks that you use to have your website show up in Google Trends? If so please leave them in the comments below...

Google Voice And Video Chat

This is a really cool application that Google just introduced. Basically its a downloadable application that allows your gmail to have voice and video chat right on your computer. After all who really needs phones these days. Have a look at the video below for more information and instructions to install Google Voice & Video Chat.

Google Introduces Google Voice

In case you missed it last week Google released Google Voice, formerly known as Grand Central. This handy service allows you to combine multiple phone number to ring on a single phone. For example if you have a cell phone, home phone and an office phone you can get one unique number that will ring on all three phones! No more confusion! They also give the ability to turn your voicemails into text so you can read them in e-mail form! Very cool...



Here is a bit more info about the Voicemail features...



What do you think about Google Voice? Has anyone tried it out yet?

Google Introduces Google Powermeter

Google.org announced that they will be making Google Powermeters available to hook up to your system so you can identify wasteful sources. What a great idea! In early testing it is showing a vast improvement in energy use. Take a look at the video below to learn more about Google Powermeter...

Explore Google Oceans

Google Earth does it again! They have now given you the opportunity to dive into the depths of our seas and check out the strange creatures that roam these waters. Observe the effects of climate change, find places to dive or surf, discover shipwrecks and even take guided tours! Check out the video below to learn more about this latest Google Earth project or just click here to visit Google Oceans...

Get More Sales With Google Store Connector

I never would have come across this useful tidbit, but I started selling stuff on Ebay and I stumbled into Google Store Connector while looking for ways to get more traffic to my Ebay store. Basically what Google Store Connector does is link up with your Ebay store and download all your products into Google Base. Now maybe you have never heard of Google Base, but it actually a great way to get your products noticed and of course like most things Google (including Google Store Connector) it is 100% free!

Think of it this way, if someone is searching for a product they are not necessarily going to go to Ebay, they will go right to Google. So lets say you are trying to sell Hummel Figurines, if someone types in "Hummel Figurines" and then hits "Shopping" on the top of Google's search page they are indexing things that are in Google Base. You need to be here!!

So basically what you do is download the program Google Store Connector, which is free and then enter in your login info for ebay so it knows where to pull your items from. After that you are just 2 clicks aways from having your entire store posted on Google Base and in turn Google Product Search/Shopping! Just hit Copy Items From My Store and then Publish To Google Base and you are done!

One important factor to note though is that you need to have a "Buy It Now" price and a set (not calculated) shipping price or Google Store Connector will not publish your item. Just make sure to post your items to Google Store Connector soon after you put them on Ebay and you will avoid any problems. Run Google Store Connector again after your items have sold and it will automatically delete the items that are out of your store and add in the new ones!

Now Google Store Connector doesn't just work with Ebay, it also works with Yahoo and osCommerce as well. This is truly one of the best ways to get more traffic and in turn more bids to your Ebay store so go ahead and try it out, just don't forget who told you about it when your sales start piling up : )