A Year in Search, by the Google News Lab team, is a remarkably comprehensive package of information never before presented in this amazingly interactive way. Trillions of queries were used as its data pool, and the results are raw search numbers, downloadable datasets, interactive elements and embeddable components.
Information was taken from Google Search, Google News, and Youtube to create an interactive timeline — something Google has never released before. The interactive timeline lets you mouse over to see searches that amassed during the year and when that topic actually peaked.
An in depth focus from over 13 different countries presented the most popular global stories. Charlie Hebdo at the beginning of 2015 and the Paris attacks at the end of the year and, were shown to be the most frequently searched topics of the year.
This search information is valuable to how it shows insight into how fast news spreads online, and questions being asked as an event is unfolding in real time, even before major news outlets are on the story. People will share events via Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms, but Google is where people go to research and dig into a story.
The information collected also provides unique insight into predicting future events. For example, the UK’s general election polls. Online searches showed a clear win for David Cameron, where opinion polls showed a much closer race between parties. In the end, Google searches proved to be the better predictor.
In the future, the team at Google plans to provide even further in depth editions of a Year in Search.
Google News Lab team envision a package where results and visualisations are tailored specifically to where people live, no matter where you live.