Mishmash Musings

I check Google Trends a couple times per day to get blogging ideas and also to look for interesting keywords to promote on a few AdSense sites I run. Some of the strange queries that I see at the top of the Trends list has convinced me that marketers have figured out how to spam Google in order to make it seem like tons of people are searching for a particular word or phrase.

For example, the phrase “kill your wife” is currently in the top 100. At first, I thought it might be the name of a music band, video game, or popular viral video on YouTube. But no, it apparently just refers to killing your spouse.

Do you mean to tell me that enough men are searching for a way to off their wives right now that the search makes it into the top 100 on Google?

Another top 100 phrase today is “dirt boards”. Huh? Dirt boards? There can’t be that many people interested in dirt boards at this very minute!

I don’t know, maybe I’m way off base here. But something definitely seems out of whack with Google searches — especially during odd, off-peak hours (like 3am!).