Google Trends Demand Mining

Before building, answer one question: how many people are looking for what you want to build->

Many people build on gut feel: "I think this is huge," "everyone around me needs this," "there must be a market." Gut feel is unreliable. Your friends aren't the market, and your intuition might just be bias.

Google Trends is a free tool that shows how many people worldwide are searching a keyword, and whether that number is rising or falling. Rising search volume means growing demand, and growing demand means opportunity.

Before opening Google Trends

Decide what you're searching for.

Many people open Google Trends and roam aimlessly. The right way is to have a rough direction: what space interests you-> AI tools, fitness, remote work-> Pick a big direction, then use Google Trends to validate niches.

And search in English. The global market is much larger than Chinese. There are ~1B Chinese internet users vs ~2B English users, and English users typically pay more. An English product has 2-3x the potential customer base.

How to read the trend chart

Go to trends.google.com and enter a keyword, e.g., "ai writing tool." You'll see a fluctuating line.

Rising means more people search-demand is growing. That's what you want. Flat suggests a mature market and heavy competition. Declining means shrinking demand-avoid unless you have a special reason.

Watch for spikes: a sudden peak then drop. That's usually a news flash. Unless you can respond fast, chasing spikes is risky; by the time you ship, the buzz is gone.

Related queries are a gold mine

The most valuable feature sits lower on the page: related queries.

When you search a term, Google shows what else people search and flags those skyrocketing. Search "sora" and you might see "sora video generator" +500%, "sora examples" +300%.

These rising terms are niches. Head terms are crowded; niche terms are less so. You might not beat "AI writing," but you could beat "AI writing for academic papers" or "AI writing for real estate listings."

A 4k-upvote Reddit post titled "SEO is Not Hard" says SEO is mostly picking the right keywords. Most fail not from poor tech, but poor keyword choice. Related queries help you pick.

Time range matters

Google Trends lets you choose time ranges, and they're not arbitrary.

Past 7 or 30 days shows short-term fluctuations-news-driven spikes. These are unstable and poor foundations for product bets.

Past 12 months is the default. It shows whether demand is rising or falling over a year and reveals seasonality. E.g., "christmas gift ideas" spikes in Nov-Dec and drops in Jan. If you chase seasonal terms, mind timing.

Past 5 years is for long-term trends. Some demands are fads; some steadily grow. Five-year data separates them. "bitcoin" had 2017 and 2021 surges but overall upward; "fidget spinner" spiked in 2017 then died.

Geography shapes your market

Trends shows where searches come from.

This matters. If a rising term is mostly India/Pakistan, willingness to pay is often lower. If it's US/UK/Australia, monetization potential is higher.

Not absolute-some products target specific markets. But if you're new, start with the English-speaking market; expand later.

Gauging competition

Finding a rising trend is step one; next is competition.

Easiest: Google the keyword and scan first three pages. If they're all big products and authority media, competition is heavy. If you see small sites, forums, personal blogs, big players haven't dominated-you have a shot.

Check ads too. Lots of ads up top and bottom-> High commercial value but also high competition. Few or no ads-> Could be low competition-or low value.

How I found the sorasy.com opportunity

On Sep 30, 2025, OpenAI released Sora 2. I searched "sora" on Google Trends and saw a surge.

That alone isn't special-any major launch spikes searches. The key is the next step.

I checked related queries: lots of searches for "sora video examples," "sora demo," "sora ai videos." Translation: users wanted to see videos made with Sora. They weren't trying to use Sora yet; they wanted to watch outputs.

That's a crucial insight. When new tech appears, most users watch first. They want to see others use it and what results look like. This "spectator demand" is real but often ignored.

Then I Googled those terms: no dedicated Sora video site. Big players hadn't reacted; small sites hadn't either. Just scattered news and YouTube clips.

Opportunity.

I registered sorasy.com on Oct 3, launched on Oct 7 as a simple Sora video gallery, and got the first $79 payment on Nov 12. From spotting to revenue: under two months.

Common pitfalls

1. Chasing terms that are already huge. "AI" has massive volume, but you won't rank page one. You need "rising but not yet huge."

2. Looking only at volume, ignoring commercial value. Some high-volume terms don't pay-e.g., "free movie download." Those users want free; hard to monetize.

3. Ignoring seasonality. "swimming pool" peaks in summer and drops in winter. If you check in winter and quit, you might miss a good seasonal play.

4. Data worship. Trends shows relative values, not absolutes. A term from 10 to 50 is +400%, but another from 1000 to 1200 (+20%) has a bigger absolute lift. Judge with context.

After you find demand

Trends tells you "how many search," not "what exactly they want." Search volume is step one.

After spotting a rising term, go to Reddit and X.com to read real discussions. What are people complaining about-> What features do they want-> Where do current solutions fall short-> That's core product input.

r/SideProject has a post about a tool that analyzes millions of Reddit threads to validate ideas. Point being: Trends is the start; real demand insight comes from user conversations.

Log the keywords, trends, competition, user feedback. Then make a simple landing page and see if people sign up. If they do, demand is real. If not, pivot. Don't build big before validating.

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Next chapter: the "new word" strategy-an advanced Google Trends play. When a new concept/product appears, searches explode and competition is zero. Ship a site first to capture the initial traffic dividend.