Web Trends: A valuable tool for business research

Abstract Web search data are a valuable source of business and economic information. Previous studies have utilized Google Trends web search data for economic forecasting. We expand this work by creating an algorithm to combine and aggregate search volume data, so that the resulting data are both consistent over time and consistent between data series. We give a brand equity example, where Google Trends is used to create several brand equity series for 100 top-ranked brands. We validate these series by correlating them with the Interbrand brand equity index and by testing how well the series components predict company revenue. We give a managerial business research example, where Google Trends data are implemented as a measure of consumer “buzz” and is used to improve pre-release predictions of movie revenue.