Update: A Google spokesperson tells WebProNews, “We’ve just streamlined it — we unified the data into one set to make it easier for users to understand what’s hot in Google web searches.”
Original Article: Yesterday, we reported that the U.S. Hot Topics section of Google Trends appeared to be stuck on the same ten for several days. As of Monday, the top ten hot topics were:
1. kelly clarkson
2. radio
3. beck
4. shutdown
5. boehner
6. shooting
7. masters
8. garcia
9. kyrie irving
10. anonymous
Normally, these change frequently throughout the day, and as we noted, it seemed like “shutdown” would have been gone from the list, considering the government shutdown had already been averted.
It soon became apparent that we were not the only ones that were seeing a lack of updating here. We reached out to Google for comment. A spokesperson told us they’d look into it for us, but we’ve yet to receive an explanation.
Earlier today, it seemed to be fixed, as a new set of keywords were being displayed, related to timely events. However, now it appears to just be gone entirely. Instead of the top ten hot topics in the left column and the top ten hot searches in the right, there is just the top five hot searches in the left column and six through ten on the right (as pictured).
Also missing is the search box for searching hot topics.
It’s unclear whether this is how Google Trends will be from now on, or if his is only temporary. We’ll update when we receive word from Google.
On a semi-related note, Twitter Trends are now available in 70 new locations.