does Google support a tool where I can type in a search term, and it will tell me the popularity of the term - as in number of searchs per week, or month? I know that we have this tool here: http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/keywords/ but it doesn't seem to work? I'm looking to see if Google officially supports an online tool to do this. Or anyone else.
Google doesn't have a tool like that, pretty much everyone uses multiples of overtures results (including Aaron Wall's, I believe). They do however provide you with "relative" information... that is searches over time or by location. http://www.google.com/trends (Sorry I can't link yet.)
No search engine really releases an actual number on this. They do release graphs, though, like those offered by Google's AdWords Keyword tool.