9/12/2023 0 Comments Google trends profile link![]() SVI is available at the global and national level as well as the more fine-grained geographic level of a region or city (given that the number of queries for a term are sufficiently high enough to be in accordance with Google’s privacy guidelines). Thus, GT does not provide the absolute number of searches for a term, but rather an estimate of how the popularity of a keyword changes over time. For each other time unit, the SVI is calculated as a fraction of the maximum query share time unit. The values of the SVI range from 0 to 100, with a value of 100 indicating a keyword’s maximum share of all Google queries during a chosen time and location. GT provides a search volume index (SVI) of a keyword, which is the relative popularity of a search term entered in Google’s search engine, and measured as a share of a random sample of Google queries Footnote 1 in a specific time unit (e.g., day, week, or month) and location. ![]() At the time of this research, Google has the highest market share of all search engines (about 90%), and Bing is the second most popular with only 2% of the market share (Statcounter, 2020). ![]() Google Trends ( )-first launched on May 11, 2006-is run by Google Analytics. We conclude with a discussion of the issues that our case study raises with respect to the potential advantages and disadvantages of using GT data for social science research. Then, we describe a case study that empirically evaluates a measure of the salience of the perceived threats of immigration in Germany based on Google Trends (GT) data. In this chapter, we describe the fundamental ways that Internet search data differ from surveys, with a focus on the characteristics that could affect population estimates. ![]() Unfortunately, this process yields measures that are of unknown accuracy. The research process typically involves selecting the keywords intended to measure a particular construct of interest, and then using GT to extract an estimate of the volume of Google search queries made, containing one or more of these keywords, in a particular time and place (Salganik, 2019). Consequently, researchers are starting to construct population measures based on these data. Search queries made on Google’s search engine, by contrast, can be obtained in aggregate form for free from the website Google Trends (GT). However, surveys are not always feasible, and they generally require substantial time, effort, and money. ![]() Traditionally, social science researchers have relied on surveys to produce population-level estimates of public opinion and behavior. Our mixed results highlight the low reliability of GT data, but also its largely untapped potential as a leading indicator of public opinion, especially on sensitive topics such as the perceived threats of immigration. GT data did not consistently predict polling data in the expected direction in real-time, but it was consistently predictive of future polling trends (35–104 weeks later) at a moderate level (r = .25–.50), although the size of the correlations varied across time periods and groups of keywords. We used the national polling results for the German right-wing party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)-which runs on a largely anti-immigrant platform-as a criterion measure. Last, we discuss the advantages and possible challenges of utilizing GT data in social scientific research. First, this chapter describes the characteristics and nature of GT data, and then provides a case study that examines the salience of perceived threats related to immigration in Germany based on the share of Google search queries that include language about these threats. To gather public opinion data on sensitive topics in real-time, researchers are exploring the use of Internet search data such as Google Trends (GT). ![]()
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