For the first time since 2012, Google has made a major redesign to search visualization service Google Trends that will now allow users to track real-time data on trending searches from around the world.
According to a post made by the company on the official Google blog, Google Trends will now allow users to explore in real time, minute-by-minute, data covering the over 100 billion search queries being received by Google monthly.
For example, for major events such as the just concluded NBA Finals, users will be able to track which stories are being most searched for by people, along with the locations in the world where interest in the event is at its peak.
Google Trends now has a new homepage that is focused on trending stories that are ranked according to real-time data. The stories are ranked not only from data acquired from Google Search, but also from trends that are happening on Google News and YouTube. All the data are then combined to provide users with a better understanding on the worldwide trending stories and topics at any given time.
The redesigned, story-centric homepage has been released in 28 counties, with more countries to receive the new homepage over the upcoming months.
In addition, Google Trends has been updated to have increased coverage and breadth over the data of the service, which will allow users to conduct research that is more in-depth on niche stories and across smaller locations.
Google added that to help users understand all the data behind the trending headlines, the company's News Lab studies trending topics daily and finds the most interesting pieces of information, which the team will post on the Google Trends Twitter account. For data journalists that are looking to make their own studies, data sets on certain topics will begin to be posted on the Google Trends Github page.
The blog also revealed that there are already many news companies that are using data acquired by Google to help them in their reporting duties. For example, the Washington Post has launched an interactive data visualization focusing on climate change that allows users to see the most important environmental problems in certain cities, among many other examples.
