Over at the Small Business Trends forums, a reader has posted an interesting thread about using search engine queries to identify emerging trends.
The idea is simple. You search for phrases that signal trends by inference. For instance, a search for the words “sharp increase” or “becoming more and more” may yield trends articles.
Go read the forum post about trend spotting, and add your comment, too.
Andy
There’s also google trends: http://www.google.com/trends