Google Insights for Search is useful for identifying new search trends and potential keywords for charity adwords or seo.  It is particularly useful in finding new or rising search trends. AnnMarie Hill of the Google Grants Team has recently written about it. A couple of examples show how it can be used.

Comparing two search terms. CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE

First, for the United Kingdom only we can compare how frequently in Web Search the terms ` volunteer` and `volunteering` were used over the Last 12 months. We can quickly see that the search term `volunteer` is almost twice as popular as `volunteering` and that January is the most popular time for searches. More data about the nature of these searches can be got by examining the searches in each Category ( shown in the red box). Note that data from the filter `All sub-regions` for the UK has very questionable accuracy and should not be used without data from other sources.

We can now look in more detail and see what the Top Searches associated with `volunteer` were.

Google Insight rising searches CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE

Rising Searches (shown on the right of the image above)  is particularly interesting as it shows that searches for `vodafone volunteer` is classed as Breakout which means that searches have risen by more than 5000% ! `festival volunteer ` and ` volunteer week` have also been increasing in popularity over the last 90 days.

Exploring All Categories can be useful. For charities and nfp`s in particular the Categories: Lifestyles, Society and Health give interesting insight into what searchers are looking for.