If internet search engines are an indication for the general interest then nanotechnology is not a big issue yet, according to an analysis by Nanowerk:

If you have no idea what nanotechnology is and wanted to find out about it, chances are you start by typing the word into your favorite search engine.

Google just rolled out a new toy called Google Trends. It allows you to check the relative popularity of a search term and how often it has been searched for on Google over time. Google Trends also displays how frequently the search term has appeared in Google News stories, and which geographic regions have searched for them most often.

Comparing the search term "nanotechnology" with "biotechnology" provides an interesting result: There has been, and still is, much more interest in biotechnology than nanotechnology. For the search term "nanotechnology" the trend seems to be downward, not upward as you might expect. And in 2006, as for the most part of 2005, there clearly has been more interest in even something as narrow as "solar energy" than in "nanotechnology". (image Google Trends)