If you’ve ever wondered what the popularity of a keyword or phrase is, Google’s got a tool that can help you. Google Trends, one of numerous experiments inhabiting the Google Labs site, provides the curious with search trends over time for a single or multiple term.

In addition to showing relative search volume trends, the site also maps news results onto the provided timeline. The graph Google Trends returned below is for the query “social networking” and “social media” (Social Networking is shown in blue, Social Media in red):

Below the graphed information Google also provides relative search volume by regions, cities and languages.

A recent addition is the ability to pull up the traffic on web sites. Google Trends allows entering multiple sites, just as it does for keywords. Regional information is also provided, as well as “also visited” sites and “also search for” keywords. Here’s MySpace.com in comparison to Facebook.com (MySpace.com is shown in blue, Facebook.com in red):

Just another tool you may want to employ when researching keywords or web sites. Don’t miss Google’s disclaimer at the bottom of the screen:

“Google Trends provides insights into broad search patterns. Please keep in mind that several approximations are used when computing these results. All traffic statistics are estimates.”

Every client I work with wants a relative measure of how they compare to their competition online. The standard measuring stick is traffic. For years Alexa has been providing a ranking based upon traffic (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.), but they didn’t provide what they felt those traffic numbers were. Instead, they provided (and still provide) a relative measure, rank, based upon their collection methods.

Today, there are other options, and ones that go far beyond a relative rankings system or even traffic. For the price (free), no one provides more information than Quantcast. Before we dive in, here’s how Quantcast defines themselves:

Quantcast is a new media measurement service that lets advertisers view audience reports on millions of websites and services. Only Quantcast combines directly measured audience data with panel-based estimates to deliver accurate third-party metrics and easy-to-read profiles on digital media properties.

Here’s a quick overview of some of what you can learn about your competitors on Quantcast’s web site:

• Visits per month
• People per month (individual visitors)
• Gender, age, household income, ethnicity and more of domestic traffic

That’s far more than you’ll find over at Alexa. But, there’s more. Beyond traffic and demographic information, Quantcast also provides:

• Brand and site affinities
• Other sites with similar audiences

Let’s take a look at some of that data. Here’s some sample Quantcast data for John Battelle’s Searchblog (http://battellemedia.com)

Here’s some information Quantcast provides:

• People - Global: 36,884
• People - U.S.: 23,461
• Average Page Views/Visit - US: 1.33 US
• Average Page Views/Visit - Global: 1.31
• 62% of traffic is Male, 38% Female
• The household income for 64% of visitors is between $30,000 an $100,000
• The majority of visitors, 70%, are 35 or over
• Visitors have brand & site affinities for telegraph.co.uk and the Washington Post

How Quantcast arrives at the information it provides is through the combination of panel data and directly measured data. Not all sites on Quantcast are providing directly measurable data, however. John Battelle’s Searchblog is, and you can tell that because on the report page for the web site, there is a “Quantified Publisher” icon toward the top of the page. This indicates that this web site has placed a tracking script on each page of the web site, allowing Quantcast to directly measure (and share) site usage information. If this icon isn’t present, the data Quantcast provides is not nearly as accurate.

Just to be clear, providing competitive metrics isn’t why Quantcast exists. That said, by the nature of the information it provides Quantcast can be used for competitive metrics. If you leverage it for competitive research be sure you understand how Quantcast collects information. If you’re making decisions based on what Quantcast (or any other data provider offers) the first step is understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your data source.

In review of a few clients’ analytics this month I kept running across an inbound referrer I hadn’t seen befoere: msplinks.com. First, I just went to msplinks.com, and saw that there is nothing but a blank page there. After trying a few of the URLs from Google Analytics, one worked. It was this one:

http://msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LnJlZGJ1bGxmbHVndGFndXNhLmNvbQ==

And this was the page it returned:

So msplinks are outbound redirections originating at MySpace. But, what is the problem that this truly solves for MySpace? They say it is a security measure, but is it (in whoel or part) to reduce MySpace usage merely for SEO purposes?

I know two places: Sphinn and gooruze. Both are created by online marketers for online marketers. Sphinn takes a Digg-like approach whereas gooruze takes a more social route. If you’re in the industry, both are worth a look.

My gooruze page: smcandrew.gooruze.com
My Sphinn profile: smcandrew on Sphinn

On the heels of Yahoo’s announcement of their acquisition of web analytics purveyor IndexTools, Yahoo announced that the tool will be made available free of charge.

There are some caveats.  Current IndexTools customers will be required to sign a standard Yahoo! agreement, and at this time the freebie won’t be for everyone.  The masses will have to wait until a later release to take advantage of the tool.  During that time Yahoo will likely be tightly integrating IndexTools with their complimentary offerings.

So here’s the analytics landscape by search provider:

• Google’s analytics tool: Google Analytics
• Microsoft’s analytics tool: adCenter Analytics (previously “Gatineau”)
• Yahoo’s analytics tool: IndexTools (for now)
• Ask’s analytics tool: Nothing to speak of. They do have “the algorithm” for whatever that’s worth.

Although I’ve never used Index Tools but I’m more than excited to see another compelling offering at no charge.

More on Yahoo and IndexTools:

• IndexTools web site
• IndexTools (Yahoo!) Web Analytics goes FREE! - VisualRevenue