Google has announced the launch of an new version of Google Insights for Search. The main feature included in the update is the addition of forecasting. Since the original release of the tool, we have been able to see that certain queries show seasonal trends. ‘Skiing’ gets more searches in the winter, ‘surfing’ in the summer, ‘Easter’ in the spring, etc. After conducting a thorough study of their own data, Google identified which keywords and categories are the most predictable and integrated that information into the tool.

Now, if you look up data for the keyword ‘basketball’, for example, the graph that’s generated will include a forecast that extends the line out an additional 12 months. The forecast data can be removed with a checkbox.

Aside from adding forecasting, here are a few other interesting things that the study unearthed:

• Over half of the most popular Google search queries are predictable in a 12 month ahead forecast, with a mean absolute prediction error of about 12%.
• Some categories have particularly high fraction of predictable queries; for instance, Health (74%),Food & Drink (67%) and Travel (65%).
• Some categories have particularly low fraction of predictable queries; for instance, Entertainment(35%) and Social Networks & Online Communities (27%).