According to a story in eweek.com Google will eventually give programmers access to an API for its Trends analysis tool.

"..While I can't [give] particular dates for such a launch, I do believe that we will be making an API available so you can take the Trends product and embed it and use the data," Mayer said during a Web cast tutorial on the application Dec. 4.

Were Google to open up Trends and allows users to download data, marketers could customize their own Trends analyses to detect new patterns, ideally to better target users with products and services. "

I think this is significant development because Google's Trends and especially HotTrends, have some gems of data, live gems, so to speak - but the interface and options Google now gives, sucks.   In some ways, Google could have gone much further with HotTrends, particularly using Television, Cable and Radio play databases which often drive HotTrends - these are missing now - but when Developer's get access to the API, it should allow much more creativity with the data, and I, for one, am looking forward to that.

I wrote about Google HotTrends strengths and deficiencies in a recent post titled What drives Google HotTrends - the missing piece.