Google Trends is Misleading You: How to Do Machine Learning with Google Trends Data

Google Trends remains a popular tool for analyzing large-scale human behavior, widely utilized by journalists and data scientists alike. However, a critical issue has been identified: the inherent properties of Google Trends data can easily lead to misuse, particularly in time series analysis and machine learning applications, often without users realizing the potential for misleading results. This revelation underscores the importance of understanding the data's limitations and applying appropriate preprocessing techniques to avoid spurious correlations or inaccurate models.