Google Trends (now available in the google.ca domain as well) has been interesting for what it can indicate about a topic by picking up search trends for keywords. Now it will analyse a site domain. But you have to run a keyword search first, and then select Websites from the results set. (Odd design).

“Google Trends, a service Google started two years ago to track searched-for keywords, has unveiled a new tool for inquiring minds looking to find out more on any given site. Like tracking services Compete and Alexa which use tool bars to grab user data, Google Trends now lets you pop in specific domains and compare basic traffic information about any .com site (or .tv, .biz, .net, and so on) using nothing more than organic user searches.”

For keywords, see activity on “cap and trade”, “carbon tax”.

For site, try the site for the Environment Canada - www.ec.gc.ca. The analysis of also visited or also searched for hasn’t a whiff of global warming, climate change, or carbon tax.

Also - Google Trends Comes To Web Sites: Trends For Web Sites - Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Land (Jun 20)

Points out how SEMs might use Google Trends on websites for getting keywords. But can also be used to find similar sites.

Explains how Google gets this data — “One thing you should keep in mind is that this tool basis its data off Google search data, aggregated opt-in anonymous Google Analytics data, opt-in consumer panel data, and other third-party market research. In addition, the search volume numbers are estimates and Google only shows ten search phrases for a domain name.”

Read more from the source here