Google Trends Data Mining Using R

Google Trends is a new tool in a Data Scientist or a Marketing Analyst’s tool box. It provides data that could be quite useful when assessing trend in general public interest in a particular product or an array of products. Trends data essentially gives us a way to assess how often a particular search was performed on world’s most popular search engine.

However, Google Trends only allows a simultaneous search of up to five terms, also it does not provide data through a dedicated API. This course describes two processes in R which could be employed to circumvent both of these issues. First process stitches together R and Windows batch system. Second, utilize gtrendsR package. In both case we set up an automated process.

The course begins by describing Google Trends data itself, and then various R functions relevant to build the automated solution. In the third section, we apply the knowledge from previous sections to build a complete end to end solution.

By the end of the course, we will better understand how R could be employed in more automated manner with minimum human involvement. Additionally, better appreciate the power of Google Trends data to provide a greater understanding of the way the world around us functions.