Think back to this morning. What have you entered into that simplified one-line text box on Google’s homepage in the past few hours?

Today I’ve googled:

• Mobile Maximo Solutions
• IMLP Blog (to check how far up it arrives in results)
• Millennials Photos (don’t ask- for a side project at work)
• Syracuse University Homecoming Court (to see who succeeds me as queen)
• Syracuse University Diversity Business Summit & Career Fair (I might be attending!)

Either way you look at it, tracking and analyzing search trends on Google is an interesting way to see what we’re up to out there. People Google personal things, medical conditions, interests, definitions, urls, photos… you name it.

Check out Google Cloud if you’re interesting in seeing what people are searching, Google Hot Trends,  Google Checkout Trends, or  Yahoo Buzz for what’s hot out there in cyberspace right now. Or even use Google Insights for more advanced features- like comparisons across time or locations.

But what about those who have additional insight and access to what we’re searching and when we’re searching for it? It’s powerful marketing information- not only directly from the source (me and you) but the research opportunities relating to this data is truly remarkable.

A friend of mine sent me an msnbc article focusing on Bill Tancer, head of Research for HitWise, a company that provides insight into internet usage (searches, etc.)

In the article, Mr. Tancer made some very interesting suggestions into changes of searches relating to pornography:

[Bill Tancer] said surfing for porn had dropped to about 10 percent of searches from 20 percent a decade ago, and the hottest Internet searches now are for social networking sites.

“As social networking traffic has increased, visits to porn sites have decreased,” said Tancer, indicated that the 18-24 year old age group particularly was searching less for porn.

“My theory is that young users spend so much time on social networks that they don’t have time to look at adult sites.”

Bill also agrees that the amount of false/inaccurate on the web is something that we need to work on:

“With the explosion of this type of false information on the Internet I think we will see someone come forward and develop a new type of software that can filter for the most accurate information,” he said.

I’ll end with some of Bill’s best work…

Some of his findings are great trivia, such as the fact that elbows, belly button lint and ceiling fans are on the list of people’s top fears alongside social intimacy and rejection.

Thanks bill, I know I feel a lot better knowing that this incredible research power has truly remarkable findings ;-)