Who's googling what? What internet searches reveal about hurricane information seeking

Three types of publicly available Google data, which include Google Trends, Google Insights, and Google Hot Trends, are used to illustrate the knowledge that can be gained from hurricane-related searches. Google Trends, which allows users to track the relative frequency of up to five terms, is used to look for evidence of the expected cyclical variation, with peaks during hurricane season and lulls in the remainder of the year. It was found that most coastal locations exhibit a higher search volume index (SVI) when a hurricane was a potential threat on the 5- and 3-day cones. In the United States, Google Insights database was used to geolocate an IP address with less than 25 miles error for 83% of the cities. Google Hot Trends currently lists the 20 most searched-for terms on a particular date and not require the pre-selection of a search term, just a date.