The Google Trends tool was launched about two years ago in order to give users the possibility to make visual comparisons between search keywords. It still does this but in a slightly improved manner, it can now calculate website popularity based on the number of daily unique visitors.

Google is neither the only nor the first to offer such a service; similar options can be found with Compete and Alexa; the two are in fact better stocked on data than Google is but no worries, Google Trends for Websites is well on its way to developing an excellent-quality service.

Users can now get information regarding traffic numbers, the geographical location the search was started in, as well as related sites that were accessed within the same session.

The data from Trends for Websites are estimated based on the Google Analytics data, as Google explained. The data comes from the anonymous opt-in data sharing setting in Google Analytics. This setting enables website owners to share their data in an anonymous form.

Also, as Google pointed out, not all websites are included in Trends for Websites. The following types of websites may not appear in the tool: websites with low traffic volume, websites that don't wish to be indexed by Google and have indicated their preference through a robots.txt exclusion file and websites that don't adhere to Google’s Quality Guidelines.

Mozilla is also working on an alleged revolutionary method of traffic monitoring, which is expected to bring a significant improvement to the accuracy of estimations. As the company’s browser, Firefox, has currently a market share of almost twenty percent, Mozilla is considering the possibility to implement a system that would automatically share information during browsing, thus resulting a continuous website tracking.