Search Central LiveDeep Dive Europe 2026

Knowledge base v2.13.0 · Community edition · data through 2 October 2026

Topic · Search trends and Google Trends

Reading Google Trends data

Google Trends, presented on Day 2 by the Google Trends team, gives free access to a sample of aggregated, anonymised and categorised searches from Google Search (web, image, shopping and news) and YouTube, from 2004 to a few minutes ago, worldwide or by country or region; Discover is not included because it has no search box, and the Trends FAQ says the internal searches of AI Mode and AI Overviews are filtered out. The key caution is that Trends shows search interest, not search volume: each point on its 0 to 100 scale stands for the term's share of all searches, so a falling line over a long range can hide growing searches; Google said ski's share has fallen since 2004 while its internal numbers show ski searches rising (not in Google's docs). Patterns need context: Google said an early-2012 spike for 'ai' came from the song 'Ai Se Eu Te Pego', not from artificial intelligence (not in Google's docs), and the Trends FAQ adds that one-off spikes on low-interest queries may be privacy noise. Chart readings shown on stage, not in Google's docs, included worldwide interest in Gemini passing ChatGPT for the first time in September 2025 after the Nano Banana launch (which Google announced on 26 August 2025), with a lasting higher baseline, and five years of US interest in umbrellas and sunscreen both peaking in June. Google put its scale at more than five trillion searches a year, a figure it published in early 2025 and which repeats Day 1's keynote. Day 3 added an example from Google's marketing research: Trends charts from January 2016 to March 2026 showed trust-checking searches such as 'is [brand] legit', 'Ist [brand] seriös?' and '[brand] est fiable?' rising in several markets and languages, and Google said such searches have risen since about 2020 in the UK and most other countries it looked at (not in Google's docs).

Based on D2-C747, D2-C748, D2-C749, D2-C750, D2-C755, D2-C756, D2-C758, D2-C784, D2-C785, D2-C787, D2-C783, D2-C786, D2-C777, D2-C779, D2-C780, D2-C769, D2-C770, D2-C771, D2-C772, D2-C773, D2-C800, D2-C752, D1-C006, D3-C581, D3-C582

37 claims · raised in 2 sessions · said or shown on Day 2 and Day 3

Open in Reef mapOpen in Graph

Things in this topic 10

Counts are claims that name the thing. All things

What to do

  • Read a Trends line as a share of all searches, not volume: compare terms within one chart and take absolute numbers from Search Console or keyword tools.
  • Before acting on a spike, zoom into the period and read the commonly searched queries to confirm which meaning drove it.
  • Discount one-off spikes on low-interest queries; they may be privacy noise.
  • Judge a launch or campaign by the baseline after the spike, not by the spike's height.
  • Use Search Console's Discover report, not Trends, to judge Discover demand.

Day 2: Indexing 35

Said on stage 26

StageConfirmed by docsD2-C747

Google Trends is a free Google tool that gives access to a sample of aggregated, anonymized and categorized searches.

Speaker Omri WeismanIn Day 2, 16:20 · Google TrendsEvidence transcript

Things
StageD2-C759

Google argued that people search authentically, for health conditions, career troubles or home repairs, so aggregated searches reflect what a country or the world cares about better than the curated picture on social media.

Speaker Omri WeismanIn Day 2, 16:20 · Google TrendsEvidence transcript

StageConsistent with docsD2-C761

The Google Trends Explore page, which Google called the heart of Trends, shows search interest in a query or topic and how it changes over time.

Speaker Omri WeismanIn Day 2, 16:20 · Google TrendsEvidence transcript

Things
  • Extended by D3-C015 Day 3: Google said the difference between words and entities can be seen in Google Trends, where a term can be…
StageNot in docsD2-C770

Google attributed the September 2025 surge in worldwide search interest for Gemini to the viral launch of Nano Banana (the image editing model in the Gemini app), as people searched for both Gemini and Nano Banana.

Speaker Omri WeismanIn Day 2, 16:20 · Google TrendsEvidence transcript

Things
  • Extends D1-C162 Day 1: Google said that after the launch of Nano Banana, its image generation model, the Gemini app became the…
StageConfirmed by docsD2-C784

Google Trends shows search interest, not search volume: each point on its 0 to 100 scale represents the share of searches for the term out of all searches.

“Search interest is not search volume.”

Speaker Omri WeismanIn Day 2, 16:20 · Google TrendsEvidence transcript

Things

Used byglossary term Search interest

StageNot in docsD2-C786

Google said its internal numbers show the actual volume of ski-related searches is going up, even though ski's share of all searches in Google Trends has declined since 2004.

“we can tell you from our own internal numbers that we're seeing on Google Trends: the actual volume is, in fact, going up.”

Speaker Omri WeismanIn Day 2, 16:20 · Google TrendsEvidence transcript

Things
StageConfirmed by docsD2-C795

Google Trends' commonly searched queries come as top queries, with the highest search interest or volume, and rising queries, with the largest increase from the previous time frame to the current one.

Speaker Omri WeismanIn Day 2, 16:20 · Google TrendsEvidence transcript

Things

What Google's documentation says 4

DocsSourceD2-C768

Google's documentation says the Trending now page shows an approximate, bucketed search volume for each trend, with its growth against a predicted baseline.

Publisher Google Trends Help, Google Search CentralAnnotates Day 2, 16:20 · Google Trends

Things

Used byglossary term Trending now

Analysis by the author 5

Day 3: Serving: Ranking, Search Console, and Performance 2

Shown on screen 1

SlideNot in docsD3-C581

A Google slide showed nine Google Trends charts of trust-checking searches in several markets and languages (source line: Google Trends, January 2016 to March 2026, web search), all rising toward the end of the range: 'is [brand] legit?' (two panels), '[brand] è affidabile?', '[brand] jest bezpieczne?', 'Is [brand] betrouwbaar?', 'Ist [brand] seriös?', '[brand] est fiable?', '¿es [brand] falso?' and 'trustpilot'.

Speaker Pablo PérezIn Day 3, 15:30 · Mastering the messy middleEvidence slide photo

Things

Said on stage 1

Across days and sessions 3

  1. Stage D2-C770 Day 2 · Google Trends

    Google attributed the September 2025 surge in worldwide search interest for Gemini to the viral launch of Nano Banana (the image editing model in the Gemini app), as people searched for both Gemini and Nano Banana.

    extends
    Stage D1-C162 Day 1 · Welcome and opening keynotes

    Google said that after the launch of Nano Banana, its image generation model, the Gemini app became the number one app in the app store in 2025.

  2. Stage D3-C015 Day 3 · Making sense of users' queries

    Google said the difference between words and entities can be seen in Google Trends, where a term can be searched as words or as an entity (Trends calls these a search term and a topic).

    extends
    Stage D2-C761 Day 2 · Google Trends

    The Google Trends Explore page, which Google called the heart of Trends, shows search interest in a query or topic and how it changes over time.

  3. Stage D2-C752 Day 2 · Google Trends

    Google handles more than five trillion searches a year, a figure Google announced publicly at the beginning of 2025.

    repeats
    Slide D1-C006 Day 1 · Welcome and opening keynotes

    Google reports more than 5 trillion searches per year.

Sources 10