WebProNews

To protect the innocent, etc., the editorial "we" won't get into any details, but earlier this morning, the danger of living paycheck to paycheck was neatly illustrated.  So it seems especially timely that we've now received a report about the popularity of searches for money management tools.

Hitwise's Sandra Hanchard compiled a list of "the top 10 finance-related search variations on 'calculators,'" and writes, "You'll see a variety of finance products, including 'home loan calculators' and 'superannuation calculators'.  Other variations out of a possible 449 terms include, 'retirement', 'savings' and 'budget' calculators."

These terms hit upon some major areas of daily (and/or future daily) life; although a wider analysis might make things look better, it appears that people are more concerned with survival than taking a three-month Caribbean vacation.

Still, there are ways in which some businesses can benefit from this data.  Since calculators are scattered all over the Web, Hanchard observes, "[T]here is an opportunity to provide web-based tools that feed in financial information across all user accounts."  Or, "[P]roviding data-enhanced finance tools on trusted institutional websites could be an intermediary step in meeting consumer demand for better money-management tools."

Assuming, of course, that the economy leaves anybody with any money to manage.