Google Hot Trends ( Hot Searches ) Gone Cold, Stops Updating

Update: Google Hot Trends is back again after two days hiatus. Lets hope it continues this way.

Kolkata (The Gaea Times): Since November 29th, Google Hot Trends ( also known as Google Hot Searches ) has stopped updating. The Hot Trends page ( https://www.google.com/trends/hottrends ) is showing links from November 29th 2010. The top link is still long-dead Leslie Nelson who passed away on November 28th.

Modifying the search string to return Hot Trends for previous dates like November 28th is successful but not so for future dates. The individual search pages still seems to be updating, at least in the news section but that’s about it.

Not only the global Google Hot Trends site has stopped updating but also the local trends site like the Indian google hot trends site which still shows about long-resigned Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Hot Trends was an important source of information for scoop-hunting journalists and spammers alike. Every alternate day you would find a new web site (content-less wonders) sprung up on Hot Trends for many search terms, only to vanish weeks or months later. I was also informed that it also lead to many friendly fire in which legitimate sites were affected but that’s topic for another day.

Hot Trend for me was a quick glance to understanding what’s happening in the world around us. Google provided an important service. Most likely Google has frozen it to thwart spammers but as with any such decision it also affects legitimate use of the information. Personally I expected that Google would have adopted the algorithmic approach to thwart spammers instead of throwing the baby with the bathwater.

Is it just a glitch on the part of Google, which I somehow doubt, or is it now time to say with a sad heart R.I.P Google Hot Trends?