Google Trends offers fun facts, interactive visuals, search data with its Olympic Hub

By Julian Chokkattu Published August 10, 2016

olympic hub google trends search olympics feat — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Google is really bringing its A-game to its promotion of the Rio Olympics. First, the company unveiled a rich, searchable schedule and quick access to Olympics information through Search, then it began the Doodle Fruit games within the Google app. It’s also offering improved navigational features for those in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the Games. Now, as the Olympics progress, you’ll also be able to look through the hottest trends using the search giant.

Google Trends now has an Olympic Hub for all Rio 2016 content that includes “fun facts, data insights, feature pages on sports and athletes, and more.”

google trends — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Fun facts are some of the first data you’ll see, such as “Fans want to know why swimmers wear two caps,” or “Alpine beach? Switzerland searches beach volleyball more than any other country.” These facts, which are paired with fun animations of a humanoid ball, are shareable, but the link just takes you to the main page with all of the “Olympic Moments.”

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“Throughout the next few weeks, Google Trends will give you a unique view into the Games with a new Trends Hub just for the Olympics. There, you’ll be able to see which athletes, events, and moments are captivating audiences — and searches — worldwide,” writes Lisa Creed, product manager at Google.

Below Moments are Featured Insights — these offer search interests on particular sports such as swimming and gymnastics in the past 24 hours. As you keep clicking, you’ll be able to get more specific search data on particular athletes, top questions about gymnastics, and even more fun facts and data.

Under Featured Insights, you’ll find Trending Athletes and Trending Sports — you can break these down by interest over time and interest by region.

There’s a lot of interactive visuals, data, and content to sift through in the Olympic Hub, and Google says even more is coming over the next few weeks. Also new is a visually updated Explore page within Google Trends that offers new ways to “analyze search data.”

For example, just type in a search term like “ramen” and you will be able to see how search interest in the popular Japanese dish has grown since 2004 via a colorful chart.

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Julian Chokkattu

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Julian is the mobile and wearables editor at Digital Trends, covering smartphones, fitness trackers, smartwatches, and more…

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