There are several analytics services on the market to help you gauge your web site’s traffic and overall popularity. But if all you really want to know is how you are faring against your biggest competitors, there’s a new, but very big kid on the block.

Google Trends for websites is essentially a tool for showing how popular your website is. It generates a snapshot of site traffic and compares results with (up to 4) other sites. Instantly see:

• daily unique visitors (with graph)

• where they are located

• what other sites they have visited

• what they are searching for (by terms)

Google Trends is free and available to Google accounts holders (which is also free). See if your big competitor offline is really your biggest competitor online by comparing the number of unique visitors. Find out what search terms your visitors are typing beside your brand name, then reevaluate your SEM strategy. You can even identify stealth competitors by seeing what other sites your visitors flock to.

So whether you’re looking for competitive intelligence or just plain curious, check out Google Trends for websites and see where your site stands.

Every market has its “lighthouse customers” – those that are going to be out ahead of all of the others (and ideally the ones that will show everyone else the way). The challenge – how do you find them?

One easy way is to submit your product to ThisNext. It’s a community of people who are such enthusiastic shoppers that they want to tell the world about their latest purchase – ranging from what’s a good baby gift to where should you buy tires. The site lets its users engage in shopcasting – a combination of shopping and broadcasting.

In any case, if you are looking to introduce your product to potential buyers, you can submit your product to the site and they will consider sharing it with their mavens (their most enthusiastic shoppers and reviewers).

This is an easy way to engage in some targeted sampling that may help give your new product a little more oomph in the marketplace.

Despite the appeal of the web, not everyone spends every waking moment in front of a screen. Sometimes your customers are just whipping up something in the kitchen. So, the important question is … how do you reach them when they seem to be beyond reach?

Enter the wireless refrigerator magnet-widget offered by Coolshrank. It’s just what it sounds like – the web enabled version of everyone’s favorite – the refrigerator magnet. However, now that the old refrigerator magnet is wireless and able to pull in feeds (and your advertising), what’s old is new again. Consumers are able to configure their Coolshrank widgets with a web-based administrators tools. Advertisers, on the other hand, can target Coolshrank users with text, display, and MP3 ads. Don’t you think it would be helpful to target refrigerators in certain zip codes or IP address zones.

The next time your target consumer opens the refrigerator door, you can actually ask the question out loud … got milk? Brands like Heineken, Land o’Lakes, and Absolut have climbed on board to exhort consumers right at the point of consumption. Don’t you think that your consumer brands deserve the same level of attention?

Many people have just given up trying to guess correct domain names for companies or brands. They’ve gotten to the point where they just type everything into the search bar first, then go from there. This behavior might be something you can capitalize on if you have a domain name that’s not just perfect for your brand or company.

Try advertising your search terms, in addition to your domain. For example, local Atlanta running store Phidippides has a very difficult domain name – it’s nearly impossible to spell. In case you were wondering, the company was named after the original marathon runner. While the brand name has authenticity in spades, what makes it tough is the fact that even spelling champions hesitate before all of those p’s and d’s. In addition to using its domain name, Phidippides should tell customers and prospects that they can find their website by simply Googling “running shoes atlanta.”

Because the company comes up as the first result in a Google search, it’s a great way to reinforce that they are indeed the definitive leader in running shoes and apparel. And, even better, by driving more people to their site with search, they’ll only reinforce their number 1 position. Oh, and of course, they will be able to stop worrying about the fact that no one can spell their name.

Up until now, publishers could use Google’s Adsense network to place ads on their site. If they wanted to use multiple ad networks, they would have to rely on someone else to manage the optimization across networks.

Now Google has added another piece to their puzzle, thanks to the addition of Google Ad Manager. It’s an ad management system that can help you sell, schedule, deliver, and measure both directly-sold and ad network-based inventory. As we discussed in Marks the spot, there are several other popular tools that publishers use to manage the different ways that you can sell ads for your site. Maybe your sales team will sell something special. Maybe you’ll work with one of the many specialty ad networks that perhaps focused on your industry. Then, of course, maybe you will want to carry ads from one of the big dogs, like Google. Now publishers can use this tool to manage all of the pieces.

Want to target ads to your site visitors’ geography, bandwidth, browser, browser language, operating system, and domain … here’s the way to do it.