Google's keyword tool is good for getting estimates but I think their search volume estimates are inaccurate based on split testing. I would get second opinions from other tools like Market Samurai and analyze the anchor text of competitors before finalizing a keyword list.

I think so, Google also update it's keyword tool . anyway for keyword research i don't rely on 100% this tool , i still need other tool such as wordtracker

The GAKT is horrible, check out Keyword Sniper Pro 2.0 from Jack Duncan. You're missing out on a ton of valuable keywords.

Market Samurai has been having a bit of difficulty the last week or so. They say they have it worked out now. There were several problems and one of those was a change in the GK tool.

Rewind a bit here... you mention the "competition bar" in the keyword tool showing lower competition possibly because of he algorithm changes they made.

The competition bar that it shows has NOTHING to do with the actual SERPS. (Unless you count the ads that show up on the SERPs) Since Google's keyword tool was built for advertisers and not for SEO, it is not rating SEO competition but rather advertising competition. That rating is the comparing how many people are putting in bids for advertising on your keyword. I don't know how an algo change would effect that unless it somehow indirectly made advertisers choose different keywords for their ads.


Second, most other keyword tools pull their info from Google's tool anyway, so you're probably not going to get a much more accurate representation - though everyone will agree that it is far from perfect.

EDIT: There may well be other tools out there that don't pull their info from Google... didn't mean to sound definitive on that point.