I just discovered the real power behind Google Trends, which offers great insight into the online world and specifically offers some opportunities to small businesses.

Google Trends allows you to search for any word or phrase and compare it against the volume of web searches over time, against itself and to other historical items that may be of interest. It graphs the result with markers showing those items of interest.

Have a go yourself at http://google.com.au/trends/ and play around with different terms. It’s really neat.

Interestingly I trended ‘Vegan’, and I got the following result,

I would have probably graphed that myself, as I believe the vegan message to mainstream has been facilitated by the ease of access and availability of information online, and the rapid growth of social media. There was a steady increase in searches up to 2011, then a more dramatic increase to today.

Here’s the interest from a regional perspective

and the related searches to Vegan,

Are you thinking of launching a new product or service in 2014?

Be sure to use the Google Trends to research and monitor brands and industry. This can be a great way to see if customers are searching for you or your competitors.

Check out the comparison of Coke vs Pepsi below.

Have fun and be sure to let us know in the comments below what you find!