• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, June 18, 2015

Google's quest to quench a thirst for in-the-moment data led the company to redesign a version of Google Trends that makes the information from the site more real-time. It gives data users up-to-the-moment trending information on current happenings such as presidential candidate speeches, sporting events or significant moves in the ad tech space like Nokia Stephen Elop leaving Microsoft. It also forecasts trends based on historic data.

The company said many changes in this latest version are based on feedback the company got from people worldwide who use trend data. Marketers who follow trending topics can now also download sets of data to gain more information about key trends for their own analysis and visualizations.

On the homepage, marketers will find a ranked, real-time list of trending stories gaining traction across Google. The tool gives marketers insight into trends on google.com, but also YouTube and Google News with an option to combine them to better understand what topics and stories trend across the Web at any given moment. Marketers can also search for trends as recent as the "Past hour," and separate the trending data based on Google's platforms.

I compared worldwide searches for "google search" vs. "bing search," but readers need to consider that the outcome only takes into consideration trending searches on Google's properties, not Bing.

The data also will tell marketers if one of their brands is waning or increasing in importance to the overall public by country.

The redesigned homepage is available in 28 countries, but the plan is to add more locations in the coming months.