Google just made some updates to Google Trends which allows you to research and compare search terms by popularity and geographical region. If you do keyword research, this can be a very handy tool.

After signing in to a Google Account, visitors to Trends can now view the “numbers” on the graphs as well as being able to download the data via .CSV format.

Here are a couple of graphs I made using Google Trends:

This first one compares Myspace vs Facebook.

What I found most interesting about this was how much more popular Facebook is in Canada while Myspace dominates in the United States.

I already noticed this as I live in Canada, and almost everyone I know locally uses Facebook, whereas all my high school buddies from Michigan, USA only seem to be on Myspace.

And here is a graph that gave me a bit of a chuckle:

Have a look at the terms “diet” and “exercise”.

You can see how those terms take a big dive between Thanksgiving through New Years, with a huge jump in January, and then teeters down again.

I title this graph: “Good Intentions”.

So go check out Google Trends.

Further Reading:

25 Things I Learned on Google Trends - By Steve Rubel

Info on How to Use Google Trends new Features - via the Official Google Blog