scholarly journals Prediction of Zika-confirmed cases in Brazil and Colombia using Google Trends

2018 ◽  
Vol 146 (13) ◽  
pp. 1625-1627 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Morsy ◽  
T.N. Dang ◽  
M.G. Kamel ◽  
A.H. Zayan ◽  
O.M. Makram ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Zika Virus ◽  
Surveillance System ◽  
Web Search ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Google Trends ◽  
Search Query ◽  
Time Series Regression ◽  
Search Volume ◽  
Advance Time ◽  
Google Search

AbstractZika virus infection in humans has been linked to severe neurological sequels and foetal malformations. The rapidly evolving epidemics and serious complications made the frequent updates of Zika virus mandatory. Web search query has emerged as a low-cost real-time surveillance system to anticipate infectious diseases’ outbreaks. Hence, we developed a prediction model that could predict Zika-confirmed cases based on Zika search volume in Google Trends. We extracted weekly confirmed Zika cases of two epidemic countries, Brazil and Colombia. We got the weekly Zika search volume in the two countries from Google Trends. We used standard time-series regression (TSR) to predict the weekly confirmed Zika cases based on the Zika search volume (Zika query). The basis TSR model – using 1-week lag of Zika query and using 1-week lag of Zika cases as a control for autocorrelation – was the best for predicting Zika cases in Brazil and Colombia because it balanced the performance of the model and the advance time in the prediction. Our results showed that we could use Google search queries to predict Zika cases 1 week earlier before the outbreak. These findings are important to help healthcare authorities evaluate the outbreak and take necessary precautions.

Using Twitter sentiment and emotions analysis of Google Trends for decisions making

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 322-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernesto D’Avanzo ◽  
Giovanni Pilato ◽  
Miltiadis Lytras
Keyword(s):  
Web Service ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Real World ◽  
Consumer Electronics ◽  
Google Trends ◽  
Search Query ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Monitoring Task ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
Google Search

Purpose An ever-growing body of knowledge demonstrates the correlation among real-world phenomena and search query data issued on Google, as showed in the literature survey introduced in the following. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a pipeline, implemented as a web service, which, starting with recent Google Trends, allows a decision maker to monitor Twitter’s sentiment regarding these trends, enabling users to choose geographic areas for their monitors. In addition to the positive/negative sentiments about Google Trends, the pipeline offers the ability to view, on the same dashboard, the emotions that Google Trends triggers in the Twitter population. Such a set of tools, allows, as a whole, monitoring real-time on Twitter the feelings about Google Trends that would otherwise only fall into search statistics, even if useful. As a whole, the pipeline has no claim of prediction over the trends it tracks. Instead, it aims to provide a user with guidance about Google Trends, which, as the scientific literature demonstrates, is related to many real-world phenomena (e.g. epidemiology, economy, political science). Design/methodology/approach The proposed experimental framework allows the integration of Google search query data and Twitter social data. As new trends emerge in Google searches, the pipeline interrogates Twitter to track, also geographically, the feelings and emotions of Twitter users about new trends. The core of the pipeline is represented by a sentiment analysis framework that make use of a Bayesian machine learning device exploiting deep natural language processing modules to assign emotions and sentiment orientations to a collection of tweets geolocalized on the microblogging platform. The pipeline is accessible as a web service for any user authorized with credentials. Findings The employment of the pipeline for three different monitoring task (i.e. consumer electronics, healthcare, and politics) shows the plausibility of the proposed approach in order to measure social media sentiments and emotions concerning the trends emerged on Google searches. Originality/value The proposed approach aims to bridge the gap among Google search query data and sentiments that emerge on Twitter about these trends.

scholarly journals Nowcasting Mobile Games Ranking Using Web Search Query Data

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoones A. Sekhavat
Keyword(s):  
Computer Games ◽  
Web Search ◽  
Computer Game ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Actual Behavior ◽  
Search Query ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Mobile Games ◽  
Internet Behavior ◽  
Google Search

In recent years, the Internet has become embedded into the purchasing decision of consumers. The purpose of this paper is to study whether the Internet behavior of users correlates with their actual behavior in computer games market. Rather than proposing the most accurate model for computer game sales, we aim to investigate to what extent web search query data can be exploited to nowcast (contraction of “now” and “forecasting” referring to techniques used to make short-term forecasts) (predict the present status of) the ranking of mobile games in the world. Google search query data is used for this purpose, since this data can provide a real-time view on the topics of interest. Various statistical techniques are used to show the effectiveness of using web search query data to nowcast mobile games ranking.

scholarly journals COVID-19-Related Web Search Behaviors and Infodemic Attitudes in Italy: Infodemiological Study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Rovetta ◽  
Akshaya Srikanth Bhagavathula
Keyword(s):  
Web Search ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Google Trends ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Search Activity ◽  
Campania Region ◽  
Search Volume ◽  
Government Websites ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

BACKGROUND Since the beginning of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, fake news and misleading information have circulated worldwide, which can profoundly affect public health communication. OBJECTIVE We investigated online search behavior related to the COVID-19 outbreak and the attitudes of “infodemic monikers” (ie, erroneous information that gives rise to interpretative mistakes, fake news, episodes of racism, etc) circulating in Italy. METHODS By using Google Trends to explore the internet search activity related to COVID-19 from January to March 2020, article titles from the most read newspapers and government websites were mined to investigate the attitudes of infodemic monikers circulating across various regions and cities in Italy. Search volume values and average peak comparison (APC) values were used to analyze the results. RESULTS Keywords such as “novel coronavirus,” “China coronavirus,” “COVID-19,” “2019-nCOV,” and “SARS-COV-2” were the top infodemic and scientific COVID-19 terms trending in Italy. The top five searches related to health were “face masks,” “amuchina” (disinfectant), “symptoms of the novel coronavirus,” “health bulletin,” and “vaccines for coronavirus.” The regions of Umbria and Basilicata recorded a high number of infodemic monikers (APC weighted total >140). Misinformation was widely circulated in the Campania region, and racism-related information was widespread in Umbria and Basilicata. These monikers were frequently searched (APC weighted total >100) in more than 10 major cities in Italy, including Rome. CONCLUSIONS We identified a growing regional and population-level interest in COVID-19 in Italy. The majority of searches were related to amuchina, face masks, health bulletins, and COVID-19 symptoms. Since a large number of infodemic monikers were observed across Italy, we recommend that health agencies use Google Trends to predict human behavior as well as to manage misinformation circulation in Italy.

scholarly journals Web Search Trends of Implementing the Patient Autonomy Act in Taiwan

Healthcare ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 353
Author(s):  
Po-Chin Yang ◽  
Mei-Ju Shih ◽  
Ya-An Liu ◽  
Ya-Chuan Hsu ◽  
Hsiao-Ting Chang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Patient Autonomy ◽  
Web Search ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Search Activity ◽  
Activity Data ◽  
Web Resources ◽  
Search Volume ◽  
Advance Care ◽  
Google Search

Background: The Patient Autonomy Act was implemented in Taiwan on 6 January 2019. It is the first patient-oriented act in Taiwan, and also the first special act to completely protect patient autonomy in Asia. Our study aimed to investigate the web resources citizens were able to access on the eve of the implementation of the Patient Autonomy Act in Taiwan. Methods: Patient Autonomy Act-related web resources were searched for by entering 10 related terms individually into the Google search engine in January 2019 and again in April 2019. Search activity data were analyzed using Google Trends. Results: “Advance care planning” and “advance decision” were the most relevant keywords for finding information about the Patient Autonomy Act on the eve of the act’s implementation in Taiwan. The main online information sources were non-governmental websites including news sites and online magazines. The related search volume only increased on the eve of implementation. Conclusions: Even though the Patient Autonomy Act was first published three years before its implementation, the related search volume only increased on the eve of its implementation. Therefore, whether the three-year buffer between its publication and implementation was necessary requires further investigation.

scholarly journals Heat-not-burn tobacco product use in Japan: its prevalence, predictors and perceived symptoms from exposure to secondhand heat-not-burn tobacco aerosol

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (e1) ◽  
pp. e25-e33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takahiro Tabuchi ◽  
Silvano Gallus ◽  
Tomohiro Shinozaki ◽  
Tomoki Nakaya ◽  
Naoki Kunugita ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tobacco Product ◽  
Internet Survey ◽  
Search Query ◽  
Acute Symptom ◽  
Search Volume ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Never Smokers ◽  
Japan Tobacco ◽  
Tv Show ◽  
Google Search

ObjectivesA heat-not-burn (HNB) tobacco product, IQOS, was first launched in Japan and Italy as test markets and is currently in commerce in 30 countries. Using two data sources, we examined interest in HNB tobacco (IQOS, Ploom and glo), its prevalence, predictors of its use and symptoms from exposure to secondhand HNB tobacco aerosol in Japan, where HNB tobacco has been sold since 2014.MethodsPopulation interest in HNB tobacco was explored using Google search query data. Prevalence of HNB tobacco current use (ie, use in the previous 30 days) was calculated using a longitudinal internet survey of 8240 individuals (15–69 years old in 2015) followed up to 2017. Rates of perceived symptoms from exposure to exhaled aerosol of others’ HNB tobacco were also calculated.ResultsThe largest internet search volume for IQOS occurred in April 2016 in the week after a popular national entertainment TV show introduced IQOS. For Ploom and glo, search volumes have remained limited since their launch. Prevalence of IQOS users increased from 0.3% in January–February 2015 to 0.6% in January–February 2016 and up to 3.6% in January–February 2017, while estimated rates of use of other HNB tobacco products remained low in 2017. Respondents who had seen the TV programme in 2016 were more likely to have used IQOS than those who had not seen it (10.3% vs 2.7%). Among never-smokers who had been exposed to secondhand HNB tobacco aerosol, nearly half reported at least one acute symptom, although these symptoms were not serious.ConclusionsA popular TV programme triggered IQOS diffusion in Japan. Extrapolating from survey results to the general population, around 3.1 million people currently use IQOS in Japan. Tobacco control organisations and governments should closely monitor HNB tobacco and consider how to regulate it.

scholarly journals Public Awareness of Uterine Power Morcellation Through US Food and Drug Administration Communications: Analysis of Google Trends Search Term Patterns (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren N Wood ◽  
Juzar Jamnagerwalla ◽  
Melissa A Markowitz ◽  
D Joseph Thum ◽  
Philip McCarty ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Minimally Invasive ◽  
Drug Administration ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Food And Drug Administration ◽  
Google Trends ◽  
Search Term ◽  
Search Volume ◽  
Power Morcellation ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Google Search

BACKGROUND Uterine power morcellation, where the uterus is shred into smaller pieces, is a widely used technique for removal of uterine specimens in patients undergoing minimally invasive abdominal hysterectomy or myomectomy. Complications related to power morcellation of uterine specimens led to US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) communications in 2014 ultimately recommending against the use of power morcellation for women undergoing minimally invasive hysterectomy. Subsequently, practitioners drastically decreased the use of morcellation. OBJECTIVE We aimed to determine the effect of increased patient awareness on the decrease in use of the morcellator. Google Trends is a public tool that provides data on temporal patterns of search terms, and we correlated this data with the timing of the FDA communication. METHODS Weekly relative search volume (RSV) was obtained from Google Trends using the term “morcellation.” Higher RSV corresponds to increases in weekly search volume. Search volumes were divided into 3 groups: the 2 years prior to the FDA communication, a 1-year period following, and thereafter, with the distribution of the weekly RSV over the 3 periods tested using 1-way analysis of variance. Additionally, we analyzed the total number of websites containing the term “morcellation” over this time. RESULTS The mean RSV prior to the FDA communication was 12.0 (SD 15.8), with the RSV being 60.3 (SD 24.7) in the 1-year after and 19.3 (SD 5.2) thereafter (P<.001). The mean number of webpages containing the term “morcellation” in 2011 was 10,800, rising to 18,800 during 2014 and 36,200 in 2017. CONCLUSIONS Google search activity about morcellation of uterine specimens increased significantly after the FDA communications. This trend indicates an increased public awareness regarding morcellation and its complications. More extensive preoperative counseling and alteration of surgical technique and clinician practice may be necessary.

scholarly journals Using Application Programming Interfaces to Access Google Data for Health Research: Protocol for a Methodological Framework (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Zepecki ◽  
Sylvia Guendelman ◽  
John DeNero ◽  
Ndola Prata
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Birth Control ◽  
Google Trends ◽  
Search Term ◽  
Health Trends ◽  
Search Queries ◽  
Search Volume ◽  
Application Programming ◽  
Relative Search Volume ◽  
Google Search

BACKGROUND Individuals are increasingly turning to search engines like Google to obtain health information and access resources. Analysis of Google search queries offers a novel approach, which is part of the methodological toolkit for infodemiology or infoveillance researchers, to understanding population health concerns and needs in real time or near-real time. While searches predominantly have been examined with the Google Trends website tool, newer application programming interfaces (APIs) are now available to academics to draw a richer landscape of searches. These APIs allow users to write code in languages like Python to retrieve sample data directly from Google servers. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this paper is to describe a novel protocol to determine the top queries, volume of queries, and the top sites reached by a population searching on the web for a specific health term. The protocol retrieves Google search data obtained from three Google APIs: Google Trends, Google Health Trends (also referred to as Flu Trends), and Google Custom Search. METHODS Our protocol consisted of four steps: (1) developing a master list of top search queries for an initial search term using Google Trends, (2) gathering information on relative search volume using Google Health Trends, (3) determining the most popular sites using Google Custom Search, and (4) calculating estimated total search volume. We tested the protocol following key procedures at each step and verified its usefulness by examining search traffic on <i>birth control</i> in 2017 in the United States. Two separate programmers working independently achieved similar results with insignificant variation due to sample variability. RESULTS We successfully tested the methodology on the initial search term <i>birth control</i>. We identified top search queries for <i>birth control</i>, of which <i>birth control pill</i> was the most popular and obtained the relative and estimated total search volume for the top queries: relative search volume was 0.54 for the pill, corresponding to an estimated 9.3-10.7 million searches. We used the estimates of the proportion of search activity for the top queries to arrive at a generated list of the most popular websites: for the pill, the Planned Parenthood website was the top site. CONCLUSIONS The proposed methodological framework demonstrates how to retrieve Google query data from multiple Google APIs and provides thorough documentation required to systematically identify search queries and websites, as well as estimate relative and total search volume of queries in real time or near-real time in specific locations and time periods. Although the protocol needs further testing, it allows researchers to replicate the steps and shows promise in advancing our understanding of population-level health concerns. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT RR1-10.2196/16543

scholarly journals Coronavirus-related online web search desire amidst the rising novel coronavirus incidence in Ethiopia: Google Trends-based infodemiology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Behailu Terefe ◽  
Alessandro Rovetta ◽  
Asha K Rajan ◽  
Mengist Awoke
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Web Search ◽  
Google Trends ◽  
The Public ◽  
Corona Virus ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Google Search ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Online Web

Abstract Background: During outbreaks, like novel coronavirus (COVID 19) disease pandemic, social communication and behaviors are very important. Under such circumstances, individual activities in social media and other online platforms will increase tremendously resulting in the circulation of information in the community. These pieces of information can be infodemic monikers misleading the community. Thus exploring the trends of public interest in searching COVID 19 related issues and checking information circulating in the public is highly crucial. Objective: This study aimed to explore users' concerns towards coronavirus related online web search and to investigate the extent of infodemic monikers (misinformation) adopted for identifying the virus in the early stage of COVID 19 spread in Ethiopia. Methods: Google Trends was employed in exploring the tendency towards coronavirus related web search activities in Ethiopia from March 13 to May 8, 2020. Keywords of the different names of COVID 19 and health related issues were used to investigate the trends of public interest in searching from Google over time. Relative search volume (RSV), Average peak comparison (APC), and associated graphs were used to compare the trends of online search interests. Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated to check for the presence of correlation. Result: During the study period, the top names users adopted to identify the virus in Ethiopia were corona, virus, coronavirus, corona virus, China coronavirus, and COVID 19. In almost all search activities, the users employed infodemic monikers to identify the virus (overall relative search percentage of 99%). Updates related issues (APC=60, 95% CI, 55, 66) were the most commonly trending health related searches on Google followed by mortality (APC=27, 95% CI, 24, 30) and symptoms (APC=55, 95% CI, 50, 60) related issues. The regional comparison showed the highest cumulative peak for the Oromia region (cumulative total RSVs, 536) followed by the Tigray region (cumulative total RSVs, 512) on querying health related information from Google. No significant correlation was detected between COVID 19 cases per region/city and the maximum peaks of health related searches. Conclusion: This study revealed an initial increase in the public interest of COVID 19 related Google search, but this interest was declined over time. Tremendous circulation of infodemic monikers for the identification of the virus was also noticed in the country. The authors recommend for the government and other stakeholders to work immensely to keep the people alert on coronavirus-related issues and to promote the official names of the virus, like COVID 19, SARS CoV 2 in the public to decrease the circulation of misleading and misinformation amid the outbreak. Keywords: Coronavirus, infodemiology, infodemic monikers; Google Trends, Ethiopia

scholarly journals Determination of the Popularity of Dietary Supplements Using Google Search Rankings

Nutrients ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 908 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikołaj Kamiński ◽  
Matylda Kręgielska-Narożna ◽  
Paweł Bogdański
Keyword(s):  
Dietary Supplements ◽  
Google Trends ◽  
Access To Information ◽  
Search Volume ◽  
Regional Interest ◽  
Trends Over Time ◽  
Relative Search Volume ◽  
Google Search ◽  
Over Time

The internet provides access to information about dietary supplements and allows their easy purchase. We aimed to rank the interest of Google users in dietary supplements and to determine the changes that occurred in their popularity from 2004 to 2019. We used Google Trends to generate data over time on regional interest in dietary supplements (n = 200). We categorized each included supplement and calculated the interest in all topics in proportion to the relative search volume (RSV) of “lutein”. We analyzed the trends over time of all topics and categories. Globally, the topics with the highest popularity were “magnesium”, which was 23.72 times more popular than “lutein”, “protein” (15.22 times more popular), and “iron” (15.12). The categories of supplements receiving most interest were protein (9.64), mineral (5.24), and vitamin (3.47). The RSV of seven categories of topics (amino acid, bacterial, botanical, fiber, mineral, protein, and vitamin) increased over time while two categories (enzyme and fat or fatty acid) saw a drop in their RSV. Overall, 119 topics saw an increase in interest over time, 19 remained stable, and 62 saw interest in them decrease. Google Trends provides insights into e-discourse and enables analysis of the differences in popularity of certain topics across countries and over time.

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