Internet Search Volume Research Articles

Cancer awareness across borders: a comparative study of internet search trends for breast and prostate cancer in Europe and Turkey

ObjectivesThe governments and private organizations strongly support cancer awareness campaigns. It remains unknown whether the campaigns during the awareness months have the same effect in every country. This study aims to compare the impact of awareness campaigns conducted in October for breast cancer and September for prostate cancer on internet search trends among the most populous European countries and Turkey. The research is framed within the context of comparing awareness campaign effects between countries for the first time.Material and methodUtilizing Google Trends data from 2018 to 2022, we collected search term data for breast and prostate cancer in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, and Turkey. Search volumes were standardized based on each country’s population and internet user rates. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to assess the influence of awareness campaigns on internet search volumes.ResultsThe MANOVA results indicated that the awareness campaigns had a significant impact on internet search volumes for breast and prostate cancer. The campaigns were found to be statistically significant in Italy, France, United Kingdom for breast cancer. And also, the internet search volumes of Italy, France, and Germany increased statistically significant for prostate cancer.ConclusionThe internet search data of Turkey, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain were analyzed, revealing that both Italy and France responded positively to awareness campaigns for both breast and prostate cancer, resulting in increased awareness. These findings can serve as a guiding framework for developing effective strategies to enhance cancer awareness.

Seasonal and Weekly Patterns of Korean Adolescents' Web Search Activity on Insomnia: Retrospective Study.

Sleep deprivation in adolescents is a common but serious public health issue. Adolescents often have a progressive circadian delay and suffer from insufficient sleep during weekdays due to the school schedule. Temporal patterns in internet search activity data can provide relevant information for understanding the characteristic sleep problems of the adolescent population. We aimed to reveal whether adolescents exhibit distinct temporal seasonal and weekly patterns in internet search activity on insomnia compared to adults. We hypothesized that adolescents exhibit larger variations in the internet search volume for insomnia, particularly in association with the school schedule (e.g., academic vacations and weekends). We extracted the daily search volume for insomnia in South Korean adolescents (13-18 years old), adults (19-59 years old), and young adults (19-24 years old) during the years 2016-2019 using NAVER DataLab, the most popular search engine in South Korea. The daily search volume data for each group were normalized with the annual median of each group. The time series of the search volume was decomposed into slow fluctuation (over a year) and fast fluctuation (within a week) using fast Fourier transform. Next, we compared the normalized search volume across months in a year (slow fluctuation) and days in a week (fast fluctuation). In the annual trend, 2-way ANOVA revealed a significant (group) × (month) interaction (P<.001). Adolescents exhibited much greater seasonal variations across a year than the adult population (coefficient of variation=0.483 for adolescents vs 0.131 for adults). The search volume for insomnia in adolescents was notably higher in January, February, and August, which are academic vacation periods in South Korea (P<.001). In the weekly pattern, 2-way ANOVA revealed a significant (group) × (day) interaction (P<.001). Adolescents showed a considerably increased search volume on Sunday and Monday (P<.001) compared to adults. In contrast, young adults demonstrated seasonal and weekly patterns similar to adults. Adolescents demonstrate distinctive seasonal and weekly patterns in internet searches on insomnia (ie, increased search in vacation months and weekend-weekday transitions), which are closely associated with the school schedule. Adolescents' sleep concerns might be potentially affected by the disrupted daily routine and the delayed sleep phase during vacations and weekends. As we demonstrated, comparing various age groups in infodemiology and infoveillance data might be helpful in identifying distinctive features in vulnerable age groups.

Smoking and COVID-19 search engine trends: An explanatory study

ABSTRACT Background: Smokers are generally more susceptible to infectious respiratory diseases and are at higher risk of developing severe complications from the infections. SARS-Cov-2 is a new virus, which was first identified in December 2019, and has rapidly spread into a global pandemic of primarily respiratory illness designated as Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Smokers are at greater risk for respiratory infections and were expected to be at increased risk for COVID-19 as well. Conflicting reports exist regarding the impact of smoking on the risk of COVID-19. Aim and Objectives: To conduct the exploratory analysis of Internet search volumes of smoking and COVID-19 using Google trends. Methodology: The aim of this research is to see if there is a correlation between global search patterns and smoking and COVID. The time frame can range from November 2019 to March 2021, which can be divided into months or days. Seven different search terms have been explored and compared based on the highest related search volume and comma related search volume to obtain the highest search traffic. Results: The search volume measured over time noted “smoking and COVID” to be the most searched term in South Africa and least in France. The years of the search terms are high when there is a surge in the COVID cases. Conclusion: The result from the present study offers an insight into a competent tool that can analyse and compare oral diseases over time. This tool can be utilised in forecasting, modulating marketing strategies and planning disability limitation techniques.

Investor attention and corporate financialization: Evidence from internet search volume

This paper investigates the relationship between investor attention and corporate financialization from a behavioral finance perspective. We use Internet search volume as a proxy for investor attention and find that investor attention is significantly and positively related to corporate financialization using a sample of listed firms in China over the period 2011–2022, and that this relationship is more pronounced in firms with higher levels of managerial myopia. A series of robustness tests still support our baseline findings, such as considering endogeneity issues, substituting core variables, and changing the model setting. We further discuss the mechanisms of influence using two-stage regressions and find that investor attention promotes corporate financialization by increasing investor sentiment as well as heterogeneous beliefs. Finally, we perform a series of heterogeneity tests and find that the positive relationship between investor attention and corporate financialization is more pronounced among firms with higher information uncertainty, small firms, firms within monopolistic industries, and firms within high-tech industries. However, this relationship is not significantly different among firms with different levels of institutional ownership. This study provides new evidence for understanding investors' behavioral biases and how investor attention affects corporate investment strategies.

Financial Reporting and Consumer Behavior

ABSTRACT We show that financial reporting influences consumer behavior by drawing consumer attention to announcing firms. Analyzing global positioning system (GPS) data, we document upticks in foot traffic to firms’ commercial locations immediately following their earnings announcements. This increase is more pronounced for announcements with substantial media attention, fewer concurrent announcements, heightened internet search volume, and extreme stock price jumps and earnings surprises—indicating that announcement coverage impacts consumer behavior by capturing attention. Furthermore, foot traffic increases with positive earnings for firms offering durable goods, suggesting consumers respond to news about firms’ financial prospects. Consumer attention patterns increase revenues and advertising effectiveness, ultimately suggesting that financial reporting serves a marketing function. Data Availability: All other data are available from the public sources cited in the text. JEL Classifications: G10; G11; G12; G14; G40; G41.

Trends in Online Health Information Searches on Sleep Disorders During the First Seven Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Iran

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a global rise in sleep disorders, serving as a critical indicator of societal mental health. This study aims to examine the trends in health information searches related to sleep disorders during the first seven months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran, comparing these trends with the same period two years prior. Methods: This descriptive study analyzed the internet search behavior of Iranians seeking health information between 2017 and 2022. Data were collected on sleep disorder-related searches during the initial seven months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran using Google Trends. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed to compare the volume and percentage of searches related to sleep disorders during the pandemic with those in the corresponding periods of the previous years. Additionally, Pearson's correlation was used to assess the relationship between the daily trends in COVID-19-related deaths and the volume of internet searches concerning sleep disorders. Results: The volume of searches related to sleep disorders significantly increased (p&lt;0.001) during the first seven months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran compared to the same period in the two preceding years. These searches initially exhibited an upward trend, followed by a decline, eventually stabilizing. A strong (r = 0.8) and significant (p&lt;0.05) correlation was observed between the number of sleep disorder-related searches and the number of COVID-19-related deaths during the early months of the pandemic. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic led to a marked increase in searches for information on sleep disorders, potentially driven by heightened anxiety and lifestyle changes during this period.

Web search volume as a near-real-time complementary surveillance tool of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) in Italy

The Internet is an important gateway for accessing health-related information, and data generated through web queries have been increasingly used as a complementary source for monitoring and forecasting of infectious diseases and they may partially address the issue of underreporting. In this study, we assessed whether tick-borne encephalitis (TBE)-related Internet search volume may be useful as a complementary tool for TBE surveillance in Italy. Monthly Google Trends (GT) data for TBE-related information were extracted for the period between January 2017 and September 2022, corresponding to the available time series of TBE notifications in Italy. Time series modeling was performed by applying seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) models with or without GT data. The search terms relative to tick bites reflected best the observed temporal distribution of TBE cases, showing a correlation coefficient of 0.81 (95 % CI: 0.71–0.88). Particularly, both the reported number of TBE cases and GT searches occurred mainly during the summer. The peak of disease notifications coincided with that of Google searches in 4 of 6 years. Once calibrated, SARIMA models with or without GT data were applied to a validation set. Retrospective forecast made by the model with GT data was associated with a lower prediction error and accurately predicted the peak timing. By contrast, the traditional SARIMA model underestimated the actual number of TBE notifications by 65 %. Timeliness, easy availability, low cost and transparency make monitoring of the TBE-related Internet search queries a promising addition to the traditional methods of TBE surveillance in Italy.

Is Public Interest Associated with Real-World Management of Ankyloglossia?

Assess the relationship between public interest in ankyloglossia as determined by internet search volume and real-world medical claims data. Retrospective Cohort Study. This retrospective cohort study was conducted using claims data from the Merative™ Marketscan® Research Databases. The internet search data was collected from Google Trends. Annual Google Trends data were compiled using search terms associated with "ankyloglossia" and "frenotomy" for the years 2011 to 2021. We obtained incidence of ankyloglossia diagnoses and frenotomy procedures in children under 12 months from Marketscan relative to all infants enrolled. We compared associations between search and incidence data among US states and over time. Google search correlated with ankyloglossia incidence (r = 0.4104, P = .0031) and with frenotomy incidence (r = 0.4062, P = .0034) per state. Ankyloglossia diagnoses increased with Google search index (coefficient = 0.336, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.284, 0.388) and year (coefficient = 0.028, 95% CI 0.025, 0.031). Similarly, frenotomy procedures increased with Google search index (coefficient = 0.371, 95% CI 0.313, 0.429) and year (coefficient = 0.027, 95% CI 0.024, 0.030). Associations between online ankyloglossia search trends and both diagnosis and treatment rates, persist across US regions and timeframes. Internet search trends are pivotal in shaping pediatric health care decisions, driving clinical consensus, and disseminating evidence-based information.

The Impact of Temperature, Humidity, and Sunshine on Internet Search Volumes Related to Psoriasis.

We examined internet searches on psoriasis in Germany and found that in weeks with high search volume, mean temperature and humidity were lower and sunshine level was higher compared to weeks with low search volume.

Attention-driven reaction to extreme earnings surprises

We investigate the relationship between investor attention and stock returns in the context of extreme earnings surprises. We propose a novel mechanism that describes this interaction: high attention to very positive and very negative earnings news results in faster incorporation of information into stock prices, an overreaction effect, and a subsequent partial reversal. We test this mechanism using post-announcement abnormal returns and measure investor attention using internet search volume. We confirm that abnormal attention to earnings announcements is positively related to post-announcement abnormal returns when earnings surprises are very positive and negatively related when earnings surprises are very negative. More importantly, we argue that investors exhibit attention-driven overreactions to these extreme earnings surprises since the initial effects of abnormal attention on abnormal returns are subsequently partially reversed.

Household pandemic Internet search intensity and stock returns: A case of tourism industry resiliency

This paper uses the Google Internet search volume index to capture pandemic attention and examines the effect of COVID-19 on the stock returns of the tourism industry. We find a significant negative effect of pandemic attention sentiment on tourism industry stock returns. The results are robust to the inclusion of alternative pandemic information variables and firm and business cycle controls. Results suggest that large-size firms, firms with better growth opportunities, and value stocks are more resilient to mitigate uncertainty induced by the pandemic. Investors welcome governmental economic policy interventions and thus adjust their return expectations less negatively. Finally, we find that the country's cultural dimension, government efficiency, stable financial system, and health system help to mitigate the downside risk of stock price movements induced by the pandemic.

Digital epidemiology and infodemiology of hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) in Italy. Disease trend assessment via Google and Wikipedia.

The study aimed to evaluate the epidemiological trend of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) in Italy using data on Internet search volume. A cross-sectional study design was used. Data on Internet searches were obtained from Google Trends (GT) and Wikipedia. We used the following Italian search term: "Malattia mano-piede-bocca" (Hand-foot-mouth disease, in English). A monthly time-frame was extracted, partly overlapping, from July 2015 to December 2022. GT and Wikipedia were overlapped to perform a linear regression and correlation analyses. Statistical analyses were performed using the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (rho). A linear regression analysis was performed considering Wikipedia and GT. Search peaks for both Wikipedia and GT occurred in the months November-December during the autumn-winter season and in June during the spring-summer season, except for the period from June 2020 to June 2021, probably due to the restrictions of the COVID19 pandemic. A temporal correlation was observed between GT and Wikipedia search trends. This is the first study in Italy that attempts to clarify the epidemiology of HFMD. Google search and Wikipedia can be valuable for public health surveillance; however, to date, digital epidemiology cannot replace the traditional surveillance system.

The searchscape of fear: A global analysis of internet search trends for biophobias

Abstract Human relationships with nature may sometimes manifest through fear, disgust and other disease‐avoidance mechanisms. While there is an evolutionary utility to these so‐called ‘biophobias’, many people exhibit phobic responses towards organisms that pose no tangible threats, potentially leading to excessive anxiety and avoidance of interactions with nature. Understanding the drivers of the prevalence and spread of biophobias in modern societies is, therefore, a growing concern. Here, we posit that online information‐seeking patterns may reveal general insights into biophobias. Using a culturomics approach, we gathered temporal (2004–2022) and country‐level data on the volume of internet searches for 25 biophobias, as well as 25 general phobias acting as a benchmark group. We explored temporal trends in the volume of search for each biophobias and modelled relationships between search volume for biophobias and five country‐level variables. We observed a steady increase in online search volume for biophobias between 2004 and 2022. Yet, there were marked differences in individual trends, with 17 biophobias showing positive, three negative and five stationary temporal trends. Arachnophobia (fear of spiders) attracted the most interest, followed by mysophobia (fear of microbes) and parasitophobia (fear of parasites). The United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Mexico and India recorded wide interest in most biophobias, whereas 49% of countries showed no search volume for any biophobia. Search patterns for biophobias were strongly associated with the percentage of urban population, urban population growth and the number of extant venomous species in a given country. Conversely, search patterns for biophobias were weakly correlated with the incidence of anxiety disorders in a country's population and the likelihood of encounters with venomous animals. Our results provide quantitative support to the hypothesis that biophobias are broadly prevalent and possibly increasing as a result of widespread urbanisation and loss of experiences with nature. We suggest that people affected by biophobic disorders may be using the Internet as a key venue to seek relevant information to appraise their condition and identify coping mechanisms. These findings have broad ramifications for understanding and mitigating human–wildlife conflicts and the prevalence of widespread biophobic sentiments in modern societies.

Construction of Evaluation Datasets for Trend Forecasting Studies

In this study, we discuss issues in the traditional evaluation norms of trend forecasts, outline a suitable evaluation method, propose an evaluation dataset construction procedure, and publish Trend Dataset: the dataset we have created. As trend predictions often yield economic benefits, trend forecasting studies have been widely conducted. However, a consistent and systematic evaluation protocol has yet to be adopted. We consider that the desired evaluation method would address the performance of predicting which entity will trend, when a trend occurs, and how much it will trend based on a reliable indicator of the general public's recognition as a gold standard. Accordingly, we propose a dataset construction method that includes annotations for trending status (trending or non-trending), degree of trending (how well it is recognized), and the trend period corresponding to a surge in recognition rate. The proposed method uses questionnaire-based recognition rates interpolated using Internet search volume, enabling trend period annotation on a weekly timescale. The main novelty is that we survey when the respondents recognize the entities that are highly likely to have trended and those that haven't. This procedure enables a balanced collection of both trending and non-trending entities. We constructed the dataset and verified its quality. We confirmed that the interests of entities estimated using Wikipedia information enables the efficient collection of trending entities a priori. We also confirmed that the Internet search volume agrees with public recognition rate among trending entities.

WITHDRAWN: Does investor attention affect corporate ESG performance?—Evidence from internet search volume

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Association Between Internet Searches Related to Suicide/Self-harm and Adolescent Suicide Death in South Korea in 2016-2020: Secondary Data Analysis.

Previous studies have investigated the association between suicide and internet search volumes of terms related to suicide or self-harm. However, the results varied by people's age, period, and country, and no study has exclusively investigated suicide or self-harm rates among adolescents. This study aims to determine the association between the internet search volumes of terms related to suicide/self-harm and the number of suicides among South Korean adolescents. We investigated gender differences in this association and the time lag between the internet search volumes of the terms and the connected suicide deaths. We selected 26 search terms related to suicide and self-harm among South Korean adolescents, and the search volumes of these terms for adolescents aged 13-18 years were obtained from the leading internet search engine in South Korea (Naver Datalab). A data set was constructed by combining data from Naver Datalab and the number of suicide deaths of adolescents on a daily basis from January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2020. Spearman rank correlation and multivariate Poisson regression analyses were performed to identify the association between the search volumes of the terms and the suicide deaths during that period. The time lag between suicide death and the increasing trend in the search volumes of the related terms was estimated from the cross-correlation coefficients. Significant correlations were observed within the search volumes of the 26 terms related to suicide/self-harm. The internet search volumes of several terms were associated with the number of suicide deaths among South Korean adolescents, and this association differed by gender. The search volume for "dropout" showed a statistically significant correlation with the number of suicides in all adolescent population groups. The correlation between the internet search volume for "dropout" and the connected suicide deaths was the strongest for a time lag of 0 days. In females, self-harm and academic score showed significant associations with suicide deaths, but academic score showed a negative correlation, and the time lags with the strongest correlations were 0 and -11 days, respectively. In the total population, self-harm and suicide method were associated with the number of suicides, and the time lags with the strongest correlations were +7 and 0 days, respectively. This study identifies a correlation between suicides and internet search volumes related to suicide/self-harm among South Korean adolescents, but the relatively weak correlation (incidence rate ratio 0.990-1.068) should be interpreted with caution.

Online Health Information Seeking for Mpox in Endemic and Nonendemic Countries: Google Trends Study.

The recent global outbreak of mpox (monkeypox) has already been declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization. Given the health, social, and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is understandable concern and anxiety around the emergence of another infectious disease-especially one about which little is known. We used Google Trends to explore online health information seeking patterns for mpox in endemic and nonendemic countries and investigated the impact of the publication of the first in-country case on internet search volume. Google Trends is a publicly accessible and free data source that aggregates worldwide Google search data. Google search data were used as a surrogate measure of online health information seeking for 178 days between February 18 and August 18, 2022. Searching data were downloaded across this time period for nonendemic countries with the highest case count (United States, Spain, Germany, United Kingdom, and France) and 5 endemic countries (Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Ghana, Central African Republic, and Cameroon). Joinpoint regression analysis was used to measure changes in searching trends for mpox preceding and following the announcement of the first human case. Online health information seeking significantly increased after the publication of the first case in all the nonendemic countries-United States, Spain, Germany, United Kingdom, and France, as illustrated by significant joinpoint regression models. Joinpoint analysis revealed that models with 3 significant joinpoints were the most appropriate fit for these data, where the first joinpoint represents the initial rise in mpox searching trend, the second joinpoint reflects the start of the decrease in the mpox searching trend, and the third joinpoint represents searching trends' return to searching levels prior to the first case announcement. Although this model was also found in 2 endemic countries (ie, Ghana and Nigeria), it was not found in Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, or Cameroon. Findings demonstrate a surge in online heath information seeking relating to mpox after the first in-country case was publicized in all the nonendemic countries and in Ghana and Nigeria among the endemic counties. The observed increases in mpox searching levels are characterized by sharp but short-lived periods of searching before steep declines back to levels observed prior to the publication of the first case. These findings emphasize the importance of the provision of accurate, relevant online public health information during disease outbreaks. However, online health information seeking behaviors only occur for a short time period, and the provision of accurate information needs to be timely in relation to the publication of new case-related information.

Macroeconomic effects of uncertainty: a Google trends-based analysis for India.

This study proposes a new high-frequency indicator to measure economic policy uncertainty in the context of India, a large emerging market economy. Based on internet search intensity data, the proposed index tends to peak around domestic and global events associated with uncertainty that may prompt economic agents to alter their decisions to spend, save, invest and hire. Using an external instrument with structural vector autoregression (SVAR-IV) framework, we provide fresh evidence on the causal impact of uncertainty on the Indian macroeconomy. We show that surprise increases in uncertainty lead to a fall in output growth and an increase in inflation. This effect is found to be mainly driven by a fall in private investments vis-à-vis consumption indicating a dominant supply-side impact of uncertainty. Lastly, taking the case of output growth, we show that adding our uncertainty index to standard forecasting models leads to better forecasting accuracy compared to other alternate indicators of macroeconomic uncertainty.

Impact of COVID-19 on public social life and mental health: a statistical study of google trends data from the USA

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a significant disruption in the social lives and mental health of people across the world. This study aims to asses the effect of using internet search volume data. We categorize the widely searched keywords on the internet in several categories, which are relevant in analyzing the public mental health status. Corresponding to each category of keywords, we conduct an appropriate statistical analysis to identify significant changes in the search pattern during the course of the pandemic. Binary segmentation method of changepoint detection, along with the combination of ARMA-GARCH models are utilized in this analysis. It helps us detect how people's behavior changed in phases and whether the severity of the pandemic brought forth those shifts in behaviors. Interestingly, we find that rather than the severity of the outbreak, the long duration of the pandemic has affected the public health status more. The phases, however, align well with the so-called COVID-19 waves and are consistent for different aspects of social and mental health. We further observe that the results are typically similar for different states as well.

Internet searches for “insomnia” and “suicide” mediated by stay-at-home behaviors in 45 countries during the first 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic

BackgroundThis study aimed to investigate (1) the mental health impacts (i.e., insomnia and suicide ideas) of the COVID-19 pandemic and (2) the mediation effects of stay-at-home levels on those impacts. MethodsThis study investigated monthly national COVID-19 deaths, stay-at-home levels, and internet searches for words for “insomnia” and “suicide” across 45 countries during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (March 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021). We used the changes of internet search volumes for “insomnia” and “suicide” (from the Google Trends database) to represent the mental health impacts, and the time of cell phone activity at the residence (from Google Location History) to estimate the stay-at-home effects. We computed the proportion mediated (PM) caused by stay-at-home levels in the COVID-19 impacts on insomnia and suicide ideas, respectively. ResultsThroughout the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, national COVID-19 deaths significantly correlated to increased internet searches for “insomnia” but decreased searches for “suicide”. In addition, the mediation effect was significant in the first six-month of COVID-19-related increases in insomnia (PM = 42.6 %, p = 0.016), but this effect was not significant (PM = 13.1 %, p = 0.270) in the second six-month. By contrast, the mediation effect was not significant in the first six-month of COVID-19-related decrease in suicide ideation (PM = 8.1 %, p = 0.180), but this effect was significant (PM = 39.6 %, p = 0.014) in the second six-month. ConclusionsStay-at-home levels significantly mediated both increased insomnia and decreased suicide ideas, but within different time frames.