Google has quietly released a new version of the external Adwords Keyword Tool to display the number of times a keyword is searched for, when you use it for keyword research. By now showing us Search Volumes for keyword phrases searched for their extremely popular search engine Google gives us a much more accurate idea, for the first time ever, of how often a keyword is used and this is very important news.

Until now most internet and affiliate marketers will have used paid keyword research tools such as Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery, Wordze and Keyword Elite to find the keyword phrases that internet users are searching for. However these tools only gather information on a very small fraction of the actual searches performed. Google on the other hand has direct access to a massive number of real searches in comparison.

Up until now all the keyword research tool services available have just tried to estimate search volumes from the little data that they have, but at best these were only really best guesses and probably have never been very accurate. With no other tools showing anything any more accurate they are what have been used for years.

The Google Adwords external keyword tool has changed all this as it now displays key phrase search volumes that are not calculated, but which are taken directly from real search volume data gathered by Google from their own search engine. Now anyone performing keyword research can get all the data they need directly from Google, which will be much more accurate than that provided by the paid keyword research services.

What is more Google provides all this keyword data for free! Although designed originally for use just with Adwords by affiliate marketer this external keyword tool, as it is known, is available for anyone to use totally free. Once you know the link or URL you can just go straight to the tool and use it whenever you want.

This is the biggest change in internet marketing for a very long time and it is a very significant event. At last Google gives something back to the Internet community. However there are still many out there who cynically suggest that Google has a hidden agenda behind all this and some are not yet sure about the accuracy of Google’s data. However quick analysis of the new search volumes suggest that the accuracy is good, but more analysis needs to be completed before a final decision.

The fact hat this free keyword tool also now has different versions for each country means that you can now do accurate keyword research, with search volumes included, for countries such as the UK, Canada or Australia. This now makes the Adwords external keyword tool the best tool for accurate UK keyword research.

For internet marketers in those countries this is an exciting development as the traditional keyword tools just never had sufficient data for the keyword results they provided to provide useful information and what is more this new tool is free!