alexinwords.com

Of course, the first thing anybody does when starting a blog is to wonder: just how can I make some money off this thing?

It was through this dream-like reasoning I found Google Trends. You can use Google Trends to see a graph of search term popularity over time. For example, when I type in “avian flu” I get a graph showing a spike in searches in late 2005, probably when the major news stories broke about avian flu.

What seemed more useful for the SEO blogger is Google Hot Trends, a top-100 listing of the fastest-rising search queries on Google. This list shows recent spikes in a search term’s popularity, thus seeming to indicate in real-time the mental shifts of online humanity.

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Doubts about my laptop’s life span started with blue lights and a black screen.

I had bought my HP Pavilion the year before and couldn’t believe it was broken already. I got it into service just before the warranty expired, but it got me wondering just how long my “new” laptop would last.

Maybe my point of view was skewed. My previous laptop, a Dell Inspiron, held strong for more than four years before I crushed the screen behind the seat of my pickup truck on a drive from Seattle to San Francisco. As it happened, I had a story due that Monday. Enter new HP Pavilion.

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