Google Trends

Google Trends
Type Search analysis
Owner Google
Website Google Trends
Available in English, Chinese
Launched 2006
Current status active

Google Trends is a public web facility of Google Inc., based on Google Search, that shows how often a particular search-term is entered relative to the total search-volume across various regions of the world, and in various languages. The horizontal axis of the main graph represents time (starting from 2004), and the vertical is how often a term is searched for relative to the total number of searches, globally.[1] Below the main graph, popularity is broken down by countries, regions, cities and language. Note that what Google calls "language", however, does not display the relative results of searches in different languages for the same term(s). It only displays the relative combined search volumes from all countries that share a particular language (see "flowers" vs "fleurs"). It is possible to refine the main graph by region and time period. On August 5, 2008, Google launched Google Insights for Search, a more sophisticated and advanced service displaying search trends data. On September 27, 2012, Google merged Google Insights for Search into Google Trends.[2]

Background

Google Trends also allows the user to compare the volume of searches between two or more terms. An additional feature of Google Trends is in its ability to show news related to the search-term overlaid on the chart, showing how new events affect search popularity.

Originally, Google neglected updating Google Trends on a regular basis. In March 2007, internet bloggers noticed that Google had not added new data since November 2006, and Trends was updated within a week. Google did not update Trends from March until July 30, and only after it was blogged about, again.[3] Google now claims to be "updating the information provided by Google Trends daily; Hot Trends is updated hourly."

On August 6, 2008, Google launched a free service called Insights for Search. Insights for Search is an extension of Google Trends and although the tool is meant for marketers, it can be utilized by any user. The tool allows for the tracking of various words and phrases that are typed into Google’s search-box. The tracking device provided a more-indepth analysis of results. It also has the ability to categorize and organize the data, with special attention given to the breakdown of information by geographical areas.[4] In 2012, the Insights for Search has been merged into Google Trends with a new interface.

In 2009, Yossi Matias et al. published research on the predictability of search trends.[5] In a series of highly influential articles in The New York Times, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz used Google Trends to measure a variety of behaviors. For example, in June 2012, he argued that search volume for the word "nigger(s)" could be used to measure racism in different parts of the United States. Correlating this measure with Obama's vote share, he calculated that Obama lost about 4 percentage points due to racial animus in the 2008 presidential election.[6] He also used Google data, along with other sources, to estimate the size of the gay population. This article noted that the most popular search beginning "is my husband" is "is my husband gay?"[7] In addition, he found that American parents were more likely to search "is my son gifted?" than "is my daughter gifted?" But they were more likely to search "is my daughter overweight?" than "is my son overweight?"[8] He also examined cultural differences in attitudes around pregnancy.[9]

Evidence is provided by Jeremy Ginsberg et al. that Google Trends data can be used to track influenza-like illness in a population.[10] Because the relative frequency of certain queries is highly correlated with the percentage of physician visits in which a patient presents with influenza-like symptoms, an estimate of weekly influenza activity can be reported. Furthermore, it was shown by Tobias Preis et al. that there is a correlation between Google Trends data of company names and transaction volumes of the corresponding stocks on a weekly time scale.[11][12]

In April 2012, Tobias Preis, Helen Susannah Moat, H. Eugene Stanley and Steven R. Bishop used Google Trends data to demonstrate that Internet users from countries with a higher per capita gross domestic product (GDP) are more likely to search for information about the future than information about the past. The findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports, suggest there may be a link between online behaviour and real-world economic indicators.[13][14][15] The authors of the study examined Google search queries made by Internet users in 45 different countries in 2010 and calculated the ratio of the volume of searches for the coming year (‘2011’) to the volume of searches for the previous year (‘2009’), which they call the ‘future orientation index’. They compared the future orientation index to the per capita GDP of each country and found a strong tendency for countries in which Google users enquire more about the future to exhibit a higher GDP. The results hint that there may potentially be a relationship between the economic success of a country and the information-seeking behaviour of its citizens online.

In April 2013, Tobias Preis and his colleagues Helen Susannah Moat and H. Eugene Stanley introduced a method to identify online precursors for stock market moves, using trading strategies based on search volume data provided by Google Trends.[16] Their analysis of Google search volume for 98 terms of varying financial relevance, published in Scientific Reports,[17] suggests that increases in search volume for financially relevant search terms tend to precede large losses in financial markets.[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]

Search quotas

Google has incorporated quota limits for Trends searches. This limits the number of search attempts available per user/IP/device. Users have reported reaching this limit after a single attempt. An error message is displayed asking the user to try later. Details of quota limits have not yet been provided, but it may depend on geographical location or browser privacy settings.

Google Hot Trends

Google Hot Trends is an addition to Google Trends which displays the top 20 hot, i.e., fastest rising, searches (search-terms) of the past hour in various countries. This is for searches that have recently experienced a sudden surge in popularity.[26] For each of the search-terms, it provides a 24-hour search-volume graph as well as blog, news and web search results. Hot Trends has a history feature for those wishing to browse past hot searches. Hot Trends can be installed as an iGoogle Gadget. Hot Trends is also available as an hourly Atom web feed.

Google Trends for websites

Since 2008 there has been a sub-section of Google Trends which analyses traffic for websites, rather than traffic for search terms. This is a similar service to that provided by Alexa Internet. The Google Trends for Websites became unavailable after the September 27th, 2012 release of the new google trends product.[27]

Google Trends API

An API to accompany the Google Trends service was announced by Marissa Mayer, then vice president of search-products and user experience at Google. This was announced in 2007, and so far has not been released.[28]

A few unofficial Google Trends API tools have been released, along with a wiki detailing them and simple access to Google Trends data.

Implications of data

A group of researchers at Wellesley College examined data from Google Trends and analyzed how effective a tool it could be in predicting U.S. Congressional elections in 2008 and 2010. In highly contested races where data for both candidates were available, the data successfully predicted the outcome in 33.3% of cases in 2008 and 39% in 2010. The authors conclude that, compared to the traditional methods of election forecasting, incumbency and New York Times polls, and even in comparison with random chance, Google Trends did not prove to be a good predictor of either the 2008 or 2010 elections.[29] Another group has also explored possible implications for financial markets and suggested possible ways to combine insights from Google Trends with other concepts in technical analysis.[30]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "How does Google Trends work?".
  2. ↑ Insights into what the world is searching for -- the new Google Trends, Yossi Matias, Insights Search, The official Google Search blog, September 28, 2012.
  3. ↑ "Success! Google Trends Updated". InsideGoogle. July 30, 2007.
  4. ↑ Helft, Miguel (August 6, 2008). "Google’s New Tool Is Meant for Marketers". New York Times. Retrieved August 6, 2008.
  5. ↑ On the predictability of Search Trends, Yossi Matias, Niv Efron, and Yair Shimshoni, Insights Search, Google Research blog, August 17, 2009.
  6. ↑ Stephens-Davidowitz, Seth. "How Racist Are We? Ask Google". The New York Times.
  7. ↑ Stephens-Davidowitz, Seth. "How Many American Men Are Gay?". The New York Times.
  8. ↑ Stephens-Davidowitz, Seth. "Tell Me, Google. Is My Son a Genius?". The New York Times.
  9. ↑ Stephens-Davidowitz, Seth. "What Do Pregnant Women Want". The New York Times.
  10. ↑ Jeremy Ginsberg, Matthew H. Mohebbi, Rajan S. Patel, Lynnette Brammer, Mark S. Smolinski and Larry Brilliant (2009). "Detecting influenza epidemics using search engine query data". Nature 457 (7232): 1012–1014. doi:10.1038/nature07634. PMID 19020500.
  11. ↑ Tobias Preis, Daniel Reith and H. Eugene Stanley (2010). "Complex dynamics of our economic life on different scales: insights from search engine query data". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 368: 5707–5719. doi:10.1098/rsta.2010.0284.
  12. ↑ Catherine Mayer (November 15, 2010). "Study: Are Google Searches Affecting the Stock Market?". Time Magazine. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
  13. ↑ Tobias Preis, Helen Susannah Moat, H. Eugene Stanley and Steven R. Bishop (2012). "Quantifying the Advantage of Looking Forward". Scientific Reports 2: 350. doi:10.1038/srep00350. PMC 3320057. PMID 22482034. Retrieved April 9, 2012.
  14. ↑ Paul Marks (April 5, 2012). "Online searches for future linked to economic success". New Scientist. Retrieved April 9, 2012.
  15. ↑ Casey Johnston (April 6, 2012). "Google Trends reveals clues about the mentality of richer nations". Ars Technica. Retrieved April 9, 2012.
  16. ↑ Philip Ball (April 26, 2013). "Counting Google searches predicts market movements". Nature. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
  17. ↑ Tobias Preis, Helen Susannah Moat and H. Eugene Stanley (2013). "Quantifying Trading Behavior in Financial Markets Using Google Trends". Scientific Reports 3: 1684. doi:10.1038/srep01684. PMC 3635219. PMID 23619126. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
  18. ↑ Nick Bilton (April 26, 2013). "Google Search Terms Can Predict Stock Market, Study Finds". New York Times. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
  19. ↑ Christopher Matthews (April 26, 2013). "Trouble With Your Investment Portfolio? Google It!". TIME Magazine. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
  20. ↑ Philip Ball (April 26, 2013). "Counting Google searches predicts market movements". Nature. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
  21. ↑ Bernhard Warner (April 25, 2013). "'Big Data' Researchers Turn to Google to Beat the Markets". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
  22. ↑ Hamish McRae (April 28, 2013). "Hamish McRae: Need a valuable handle on investor sentiment? Google it". The Independent. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
  23. ↑ Richard Waters (April 25, 2013). "Google search proves to be new word in stock market prediction". Financial Times. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
  24. ↑ David Leinweber (April 26, 2013). "Big Data Gets Bigger: Now Google Trends Can Predict The Market". Forbes. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
  25. ↑ Jason Palmer (April 25, 2013). "Google searches predict market moves". BBC. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
  26. ↑ How does Hot Searches work?, google.com
  27. ↑ Insights into what the world is searching for -- the new Google Trends, Insights Search, The official Google Search blog, September 28, 2012.
  28. ↑ Elinor Mills (December 4, 2007). "Google Trends API coming soon". Retrieved October 17, 2010.
  29. ↑ ""On the Predictability of the U.S. Elections Through Search Volume Activity," at Journalist's Resource.org".
  30. ↑ Lim, Shawn, Stridsberg, Douglas (2014). "Feeling the Market's Pulse with Google Trends". International Federation of Technical Analysts Journal 2015 Edition.

External links

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