Exploding Topics vs Google Trends: Which To Use In 2024

Ever wish you had a crystal ball to see what will be the next big thing in your industry?

While I can’t promise you full-on psychic abilities, tools like Exploding Topics and Google Trends are the next best thing! They help uncover those exciting, emerging trends before they hit the mainstream.

Best for trend discovery

Exploding Topics

Find emerging topics, sub-niches, products, and startups before they blow up. Leverage early insights to grow your business and build authority as an expert in your industry.

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Best for comparing trends

Google Trends

Get free insights on specific trending topics directly from Google Search data. Compare historical data on trends and keywords to identify what your audience is more interested in.

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Let’s dive in and discover how each platform works so you can make informed decisions and invest your marketing efforts where they’ll give the biggest bang for your buck.

What is the difference between Exploding Topics and Google Trends?

The primary difference between Exploding Topics and Google Trends is their approach to trends.

Exploding Topics specializes in spotting those emerging trends that are poised to explode in popularity.

Google Trends, on the other hand, is better for analyzing the popularity of existing topics over time, including historical data.

Think of it this way: Exploding Topics gives you a glimpse into future trends, while Google Trends reveals details on the topics you already know about.

While they are both great AI tools for business needs, they mostly have different purpose and use cases, with Exploding Topics being a much more advanced solution.

Another big difference between these two tools is the source of data.

Exploding Topics uses a proprietary algorithm that scours the web, including search trends, discussion forums, and social media, to find topics with rapidly increasing interest. Google Trends primarily focuses on Google Search data.

This means Exploding Topics might give you a broader picture of trends that are bubbling up across different online platforms.

What is Exploding Topics good at?

Exploding Topics is ideal if you want to be an early adopter. It helps you find rising trends and niches before everyone else jumps on the bandwagon.

Here is what you can use Exploding Topics for:

• Discovering up-and-coming topics: Exploding Topics’ algorithm analyzes massive data sets to spot trends that are rapidly gaining attention. This gives you a headstart in creating content or developing products around topics that are likely to blow up soon.
• Identifying trending products: For dropshippers or e-commerce sellers, Exploding Topics can be a goldmine. It pinpoints trending products before they hit peak popularity, allowing you to capitalize on the demand.
• Finding promising startups: If you’re an investor, Exploding Topics helps you discover startups and industries with significant growth potential. By identifying these emerging trends early, you can make informed investment decisions.
• Building topical authority: Content marketers and bloggers can use Exploding Topics to uncover untapped niche topics with low competition. This allows you to become the go-to expert in that area and build authority as the trend develops.

Is Exploding Topics a reliable source?

Yes, Exploding Topics is a reliable source for trend discovery. It was created by Brian Dean, a highly respected authority in the SEO world, which lends credibility to the platform. It has also earned an impressive 4.9/5 user rating on ProductHunt, which signifies that it delivers its promise of finding early-stage trends with significant potential for growth.

What is Google Trends good at?

Google Trends is a good tool for validating established topics and understanding their search patterns over time.

Here is what you can use Google Trends for:

• Analyzing search volume over time: Google Trends visualizes how search interest for a topic has changed throughout history. This lets you see if interest is increasing, decreasing, or seasonal.
• Geographical analysis: See where a particular topic is most popular, including breakdowns by country, region, and city. This is helpful for tailoring content or marketing campaigns to specific locations.
• Related topics and queries: Google Trends suggests related topics and queries people are searching for alongside your main keyword. This gives you a broader understanding of the topic and can spark new content ideas.
• Keyword comparison: Compare the search popularity of multiple keywords simultaneously. This is useful when deciding between similar products to offer or keywords for your content strategy.

Is Google Trends reliable?

Yes, Google Trends is a reliable source for understanding search trends. Its massive dataset, derived directly from Google Search, provides a good representation of search behavior.

While it’s important to remember that it focuses on relative popularity and doesn’t predict the future, it’s a valuable tool for validating search interest and comparing topics.

How I use Exploding Topics vs Google Trends

I mostly use Exploding Topics to find emerging software to talk about on my blog, and untapped keywords that are getting traction. The search feature in Trends Database is super helpful as a starting point for quickly finding relevant topics!

As an AI strategist, it really helps me stay on top of the industry, discover promising tools and stay away from short-lived fads.

Exploding Topics allows you to track the topics you are interested in and organize them into projects (folders).

If you want to dive deeper into a particular thing or product, the tool will show you all you need to know, such as detailed trend trajectory, forecasting, social channels where it’s getting traction, related products, and much more.

I also love that they actively develop the platform and keep adding new useful features.

For example, the new Meta Trends feature (currently in Beta) lets you stay in the know about all the major trends in your industry, by grouping together all related things in a convenient, visual, easy-to-use way.

As for Google Trends, I personally only use it now for comparing things. This is useful when you have more than one idea and need to choose what to focus on first.

I used it more in the past when I couldn’t afford Exploding Topics, but now I don’t really have a lot of use cases for it.

Exploding Topics vs Google Trends: Pricing comparison

Google Trends is a free tool, and Exploding Topics also has a free version.

But if you want to get the most value from Exploding Topics, they offer three Pro-level plans depending on your needs.

All the Pro plans give you access to full trends database (some topics are hidden in Free) and allow you to track and analyze specific trends, as well as find trending products in your niche.

What’s even more valuable is that with a Pro Exploding Topics account, you can see a close-up view of each trend, such as 1-year, 6-month, or 3-month charts, as opposed to 5-year and 2-year data in Free.

You also get interesting insights you could leverage for content creation, such as what social channels a particular thing is trending on.

I’m currently on the Investor plan because I’m in a very fast-moving niche (artificial intelligence) and I wanted access to trend forecasting and emerging startups.

The Business plan is sweet because it has no limits on how many trends you can track or analyze, and it sends you instant alerts on your industry trends. Personally, I can’t justify the price of it as a solopreneur, but it might be worth it for bigger businesses or agencies who work with multiple clients.

If you are in the early stages of your business growth, the Entrepreneur plan may be more than enough for you depending on your industry, the type of your business, and what exactly you need this tool for.

Exploding Topics vs Google Trends: Which is better?

Based on my experience of using both tools, Exploding Topics is much better for everyone who can afford it. It gives you early insights about your industry, identifies trending products and startups, and offers enough data to put you two steps ahead of any competitor.

That said, whether you should choose one or another totally depends on your business model and what you are going to use it for.

Exploding Topics is the way to go if you want to capitalize on the latest emerging trends before they become mainstream. It can be discovering new products to sell, promising startups to invest in, or untapped keywords to talk about on your blog or YouTube channel.

Google Trends is the go-to tool for validating topics you already heard about, comparing them to each other when you need to prioritize work, and understanding how search interest fluctuates over time.

Let’s have a final look at the pros and cons of Exploding topics vs Google Trends: