The function hasn't changed, but the tense has: Trends now tracks stories in real time, giving unfettered access to what the Internet wants to know in the moment.

Trends had been largely unchanged since 2012, a helpful but slightly backdated look at subjects people were searching for over the last day or more. As of today, you can see minute-by-minute information culled from the 100 billion searches that take place on Google at any given month. Not only that, but Trends now pulls in information from Google News and YouTube, for a fuller view of what people want to know.

n many ways, insight into what people are searching for is even more powerful than what they already know, says Steve Grove, head of Google's News Lab.