is there any way i can find out how many people are searching for a certain, specific term on google? thanks
Yes there is a 100% accurate way. Set up an adwords acount for that phrase, and bid it into position in the top 4 ensuring that way that anytime it is searched the ad will receive an impression. Apart from this there is no way.
Setting up an adwords account is free but publishing ads is not. I have heard of some hosts giving $50 vouchers for adwords when signing up. But really I would read what OWG has written in response to your question and take it with a pinch of salt.
Try: hxxp://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ (replace the xx's, not enough posts for me yet) It's not google, and I think the results are only for Overture (text is a little vague, but I don't think they could have exact numbers on the other search engines anyway). You could probably get a good guess if you figure out overture's market share compared to google's.