Search volume as an economic indicator
I’ve used Google Trends to do a few trend charts of various technologies, but this article, “Unexpected Decline in Existing Home Sales? Not Exactly” shows a wonderful example of online search usage as a precursor to real-world activity (in this case, searching on “homes for sale” before buying a house.) The chart below summarizes it, but you might want to click through at take a look at the full post (it’s short but interesting):
It makes me wonder what other real-world behavior (particularly economic activity) can be predicted by watching net usage. For example, it might be interesting to see a mapping between Google Music Trends data (which scans Google Talk conversations) and real music sales. Even better might be predicting stock market activity using search behavior…
Leave a Reply
A few books I'm reading now:
-
What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful
-
The Simplicity Survival Handbook: 32 Ways To Do Less And Accomplish More
A few books I'd recommend:
-
Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science
by Charles Wheelan -- A fantastic overview of the field of Economics. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book.
-
A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson -- a true tale of scientific thinking throughout history. You'll be amazed by how much we still don't know.
-
Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner -- a fun read offering a somewhat different way of looking at society. Answers questions like "Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?", and what qualities in a parent matter for the success of a child later in life?
-
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
by David Allen. I'm a bit of a GTD freak since reading this, but productivity == $$ (whether you can simply get more work done in a given time, or work less by focusing on the right tasks.)