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Me? I’m constantly asked how I do online research. Whether it’s due to the internet rabbit holes I’ve found, the business ideas I’ve shared on My First Million (ExhibitA,B,C,D…), building out Trends.co into a multi-million dollar business, major trends I’ve spotted and taken advantage of early, or unique projects I’ve dreamt up…
The most common request in my inbox is some flavor of, “Where on Earth do you find this stuff?!”
For a long time, I’ve resisted pulling together the tricks of the Internet rabbit hole trade. Not because I enjoy keeping secrets, but because I questioned how useful they might be to the average person. But recently, I changed my mind.
So what changed my mind? Why am I finally building this?
Because I have to! Not so long ago, people’s wants and desires were housed in the nooks and crannies of individual brains. With some time and technology, nuggets of insight came from the limited confines of knocking on doors and expensive focus groups. But even then, these data points were so small and so selective — representing what a few people say they want instead of how the masses interact when nobody is watching.
Thankfully, the era of the internet ushered in a whole new world. Insights are no longer constrained to those with a wallet to pay for them. They’re scattered in plain sight all over the Internet, and with the right knowledge, anyone can access them.
There are now websites that reach literally billions of people, and more importantly, there are tools that aggregate behaviors and see through the noise of those websites and tell you everything from…
- what products people are buying and at what scale,
- what trends are catching on and how localized they are,
- what ideas companies are betting millions on,
- what communities are most interconnected,
- what opportunities are entering the public domain,
- what regulatory changes have gone into effect,
- what questions people are asking in the most unique corners of the web
- and SO MUCH more…
