Applications, Potentials, and Challenges when Using Google Trends in Combination or as Substitute for Surveys 1 |
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| Coordinator 1 | Professor Florian Keusch (University of Mannheim) |
| Coordinator 2 | Ms Johanna Mehltretter (University of Mannheim) |
| Coordinator 3 | Dr Christoph Sajons (University of Mannheim) |
Aggregated Internet search data from Google Trends are increasingly used as a supplement or alternative to survey data. Proponents of Google Trends argue that anonymous search queries of Internet users are a good reflection of true interest, behaviors, and attitudes, particularly for sensitive topics, where surveys suffer from measurement error due to social desirability. In addition, Google Trends allows researchers to study changes in topic salience, attitudes, and behaviors across time and geographic areas at much finer granularity than possible in surveys. On the downside, using Google Trends data may include multiple problems. First, not everybody uses the Google search function, potentially leading to selection bias. Second, Google Trends only provide search volumes based on a sample of all search queries, thus questions of reliability arise. And third, it is often unclear how validly the selected search terms measure the constructs of interest.
In this session, we aim to bring together empirical evidence on the state-of-the-art use of Google Trends data in combination with or as an alternative to self-reports from surveys. Submissions can be methodological in orientation or can be substantive applications that demonstrate the usefulness and assess the quality of Google Trends data. Potential topics for submissions include, but are not limited to:
- Validation of Google Trends data
- Comparison of different approaches to select appropriate keywords
- Approaches to overcome reliability issues of Google Trends data
- Triangulation through joint use of Google Trends with surveys
- Analysis strategies for Google Trends data
- Best practices for transparent documentation when working with Google Trends
- Social science applications of the use of Google Trends data to measure specific attitudes, behavior, and topic salience