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Blog > Tracking Hurricane Sandy with Google Autocomplete [UPDATED]

Tracking Hurricane Sandy with Google Autocomplete [UPDATED]

See UPDATE at 2:57pm

Google Autocomplete (formerly Suggest) is an effective algorithm to mine what people are Googling in almost real time. We’ll find out how real time it is as the storm progresses, but we are already seeing the locations that the storm is projected to hit in the result set – as south as Maryland, all the way up to Canada as show in the map below from the National Hurricane Center.

(NHC, 1:12pm EST, 11/28/2012)

Current Result Set from Google Autocomplete on Hurricane Sandy 10/28/2012, 1:25pm EST, NYC.

 

hurricane sandy autocomplete

Result set from http://suggester.promediacorp.com/?lo=us&la=en&c=kprwpw&q=hurricane+sandy [“hook” & “point” filtered out)

Top 5 terms:

hurricane sandy
hurricane sandy update
hurricane sandy projected path
hurricane sandy 2012
hurricane sandy 2006

Current all :[locations have been bolded]

1 hurricane sandy evacuations
2 hurricane sandy ontario
3 hurricane sandy jamaica
4 hurricane sandy long island
5 hurricane sandy radar
6 hurricane sandy boston
7 hurricane sandy nyc
8 hurricane sandy dc
9 hurricane sandy tracker
10 hurricane sandy video
11 hurricane sandy washington dc
12 hurricane sandy map
13 hurricane sandy satellite
14 hurricane sandy connecticut
15 hurricane sandy watch
16 hurricane sandy maryland
17 hurricane sandy school closings
18 hurricane sandy twitter
19 hurricane sandy philadelphia
20 hurricane sandy new york
21 hurricane sandy baltimore
22 hurricane sandy category
23 hurricane sandy delaware
24 hurricane sandy live
25 hurricane sandy cuba
26 hurricane sandy toronto
27 hurricane sandy brooklyn
28 hurricane sandy landfall
29 hurricane sandy new jersey
30 hurricane sandy latest news
31 hurricane sandy canada
32 hurricane sandy new york city

 

As you can see from the list above, Google autocomplete is like a realtime trending topics. In the case of Hurricane Sandy, autocomplete is accumulating and ordering the locations from all news sources that people consume and later query.

[UPDATED: 2:57PM EST]

The number of terms in autocomplete related to Sandy has quadrupled in under 24 hours. We have new terms that people are querying such as:

  • Ways to track the storm- Twitter, Tunblr, Youtube,  and the new hurricane tracker Google launched
  • Images, videos, live coverage, timeline and radar.
  • Damage, death toll, evacuation, projected path after aftermath.
  • Conspiracies, Jokes, End of the World, new memes such as Grease and other offbeat.
  • New local terms including Jersey Shore, Ocean City MD, Richmond VA, Outer Banks, Syracuse, Buffalo, Chicago, Michigan, Southern Ontario
Complete List:
1 hurricane sandy path
2 hurricane sandy update
3 hurricane sandy tracker
4 hurricane sandy
5 hurricane sandy 2012
6 hurricane sandy 2006
7 hurricane sandy nyc
8 hurricane sandy evacuation
9 hurricane sandy virginia
10 hurricane sandy grease
11 hurricane sandy from space
12 hurricane sandy wiki
13 hurricane sandy landfall
14 hurricane sandy jokes
15 hurricane sandy atlantic city
16 hurricane sandy images
17 hurricane sandy map
18 hurricane sandy dc
19 hurricane sandy halifax
20 hurricane sandy ohio
21 hurricane sandy youtube
22 hurricane sandy zones
23 hurricane sandy category
24 hurricane sandy boston
25 hurricane sandy satellite
26 hurricane sandy radar
27 hurricane sandy meme
28 hurricane sandy connecticut
29 hurricane sandy twitter
30 hurricane sandy albany ny
31 hurricane sandy jersey city
32 hurricane sandy baltimore
33 hurricane sandy live
34 hurricane sandy washington dc
35 hurricane sandy damage
36 hurricane sandy in boston
37 hurricane sandy google
38 hurricane sandy video
39 hurricane sandy evacuation zones
40 hurricane sandy rhode island
41 hurricane sandy outer banks
42 hurricane sandy funny
43 hurricane sandy projected path
44 hurricane sandy new york
45 hurricane sandy status
46 hurricane sandy pictures
57 hurricane sandy jersey shore
48 hurricane sandy ocean city md
49 hurricane sandy long island
50 hurricane sandy vermont
51 hurricane sandy storm tracker
52 hurricane sandy new jersey
53 hurricane sandy timeline
54 hurricane sandy richmond va
55 hurricane sandy maryland
56 hurricane sandy watch
57 hurricane sandy end of the world
58 hurricane sandy florida
59 hurricane sandy in new york
60 hurricane sandy current location
61 hurricane sandy global warming
62 hurricane sandy brooklyn
63 hurricane sandy deaths
64 hurricane sandy footage
65 hurricane sandy virginia beach
66 hurricane sandy ontario
67 hurricane sandy jamaica
68 hurricane sandy tumblr
69 hurricane sandy maine
70 hurricane sandy rochester ny
71 hurricane sandy in new jersey
72 hurricane sandy syracuse
73 hurricane sandy location
74 hurricane sandy impact
75 hurricane sandy ottawa
76 hurricane sandy philadelphia
77 hurricane sandy size
78 hurricane sandy live radar
79 hurricane sandy weather
80 hurricane sandy toronto
81 hurricane sandy flight cancellations
82 hurricane sandy massachusetts
83 hurricane sandy coverage
84 hurricane sandy route
85 hurricane sandy cape cod
86 hurricane sandy right now
87 hurricane sandy in north carolina
88 hurricane sandy manhattan
89 hurricane sandy photos
90 hurricane sandy weather channel
91 hurricane sandy storm surge
92 hurricane sandy latest news
93 hurricane sandy real time
94 hurricane sandy surf
95 hurricane sandy michigan
96 hurricane sandy live update
97 hurricane sandy in canada
98 hurricane sandy doppler
99 hurricane sandy waves
100 hurricane sandy pittsburgh
101 hurricane sandy chicago
102 hurricane sandy wind speed
103 hurricane sandy live video
104 hurricane sandy new york city
105 hurricane sandy montreal
106 hurricane sandy delaware
107 hurricane sandy in ontario
108 hurricane sandy pics
109 hurricane sandy strength
110 hurricane sandy conspiracy
111 hurricane sandy death toll
112 hurricane sandy west virginia
113 hurricane sandy current position
114 hurricane sandy live tracker
115 hurricane sandy north carolina
116 hurricane sandy path update
117 hurricane sandy satellite image
118 hurricane sandy power outages
119 hurricane sandy buffalo
120 hurricane sandy nasa
121 hurricane sandy live coverage
122 hurricane sandy canada
123 hurricane sandy southern ontario
View the next post in this series – discoveries from the aftermath.

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