Silverback Marketing has commented numerous times about the tools that have been eliminated from the Google arsenal since Larry Page took over as CEO in 2011. Therefore, it is nice when an older tool is given a facelift instead of being permanently deleted as a Google service. This is the case with Hot Searches, a part of Google Trends that was recently the feature of a post on the Official Google Blog.

The Tuesday, June 12^th blog post entitled “Find out what people are searching for with the updated Hot Searches list” was created by Nimrod Tamir from the Google Trends Team. Google Trends is a function that allows the user to compare his or her interests to what the rest of the online world is interested in and see how often different topics are searched for using Google over a specific period of time. The Hot Searches function takes that one step further by providing a Google user a stream of search queries that are quickly rising in popularity across the United States.

Hot Searches is an easy way for an individual to quickly gain a snapshot of recent news events. The tool also provides users a way to see what is happening around the country at the exact time of the search. This is a complex process using an algorithm Google created to analyze millions of searches and figure out what searches are being performed more than normal at the time of the query. The Hot Searches list is updated on an hourly basis, providing the user performing the query the most up-to-date information possible. Here is a screenshot of the Hot Search on Google at 6:50pm PST Tuesday, June 12, 2012.

The previous version of Hot Search generated twenty results on the page. The revamped Hot Search now filters the results to truly deliver the hottest topics of that particular day. If the fastest rising search terms are all related to the same story, they would be combined into one entry. Users will also be able to view how many searches were performed for each individual Hot Search for the 24-hour time period relevant to the time that search was performed.

Take a look at the refresh done to Hot Searches on Google Trends! The queries now possess more visual images and you will be able to see more information about those searches.