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Google Analyses the Future
The latest release of Google Insights for Search looks into the future and predicts what will be searched for, based on a combination of current searches and the way trends have developed in the past.
Google's analysis of its own searches found that trends in the majority of popular search terms can be predicted with a good degree of accuracy year by year. As a result the search giant's search trends graphs now continue into the future. The search giant expects business to use the predictions for things like budget planning, marketing campaigns and the allocation of resources.
Google stresses that its predictions are based on historical performance and acknowledges its 'basic limitation of not knowing what the future will entail', but says some categories are more predictable than others. Planned events and seasons make trends in sectors like health, food and drink and travel easier to predict, while things like social networks and online communities are tougher to call.
The new version of the year-old tool also sees the addition of new languages, bringing the total available to 39. An animated map is another addition, allowing users to view how a search term has been used over time in particular geographic regions.
Meanwhile latest search figures from comScore (www.comscore.com ) show that the launch of Bing has generated an uplift in Microsoft's US search share against rivals Google and Yahoo. Of around 13.6 billion searches conducted in the US last month, Google and Yahoo! both lost 0.3%, taking 64.7% and 19.6% respectively in July, while Microsoft grew 0.5% to 8.9%.
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