Google Trends: Search analytics at the service of researchers, professionals and curious people
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3145/thinkepi.2019.e13inf01Keywords:
Google Trends, Newcasting, Forecasting, Cybermedia, Online media, SEO, Search engine optimization, Webometrics, Online metrics, Search analyticsAbstract
Google Trends was updated in May 2018, adding important nevelties, such as a redesign of the search trends section, improvements in the visualization of data, and the inclusion of Stories, pieces of curated content very useful for Communication professionals. The main objectives of this work are to explain the basics of this new version of Google Trends, to describe its features and to discuss its usefulness as a metric analysis tool for information professionals. It is concluded that Google Trends is not a valid tool to be used in cybermetric analysis. Despite this, the service offers very useful data if it is used professionally, especially in the field of SEO (search engine optimization). The current orientation of Google Trends towards journalism and communication could be a strategy to redirect web traffic to certain online media.References
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