Google search activity data and breaking trends

Abstract

Using Google search activity data can help detect, in real time and at high frequency, a wide spectrum of breaking socio-economic trends around the world. This wealth of data is the result of an ongoing and ever more pervasive digitization of information. Search activity data stand in contrast to more traditional economic measurement approaches, which are still tailored to an earlier era of scarce computing power. Search activity data can be used for more timely, informed, and effective policy making for the benefit of society, particularly in times of crisis. Indeed, having such data shifts the relation between theory and the data to support it.