We’re more than ready to admit that analyzing Google Trends isn’t the best way to predict the future. However, according to recent data, it looks like Hillary Clinton could be well on her way to becoming the Democratic nominee.
Anne Zelenka provided a graph that shows searches for “hillary clinton” with a clear lead over those for “barack obama” and “john edwards.” The content of the graph was, by the way, originally suggested by Google’s own Marissa Mayer.
So what does this mean? All other issues (representative sample, etc.) aside, there’s one major problem: whether or not all the searches for Clinton reflect positive interest (or at least less negative interest than whatever’s present in the searches for other candidates).
Still, Zelenka noted, “Mayer showed how Google Trends accurately predicted George W. Bush’s dominance over John Kerry in 2004 and Nicolas Sarkozy’s win in May of this year over Segolene Royal in the French presidential election.”
And in semi-related news, Jonathan Richards began an article by stating, “Bill and Hillary Clinton are among the guests expected to descend on a tiny Caribbean island this weekend for the wedding of Larry Page, the billionaire co-founder of Google.”
