Is the price of Bitcoin correlated to it's Google searches?

in bitcoin •  7 years ago 

According to SEMrush, a search engine marketing agency, the price of Bitcoin has a 91% correlation to it's volume of Google searches. 

What does that mean?

It means that recently the number of Google searches for "Bitcoin" go up and down with the price of Bitcoin.

That probably isn't that surprising when you really think about it as you would expect that as the price goes higher more and more people are interested in it and as it goes down people are less interested. 

Either way, it is an interesting talking point.

How was this study conducted?

SEMrush drew from a database of 120 million US keyword searches that were linked to Bitcoin or Bitcoin related terms. 

Bitcoin-related searches being searches like:

"Bitcoin"

"Bitcoin news"

"Bitcoin price"

"Bitcoin value" 

The total number of Bitcoin and Bitcoin related searches was estimated to be around 51,400,000 over the course of the last year.

According to the data, the price of Bitcoin in US dollars rose and fell largely in tandem with the number of search requests.

In fact, it moved in tandem roughly 91% of the time. 

Is the study merely confirming the obvious?

Possibly.

As mentioned above, it seems fairly obvious that as Bitcoin becomes more expensive, more people tend to search for it online to see how it is doing.

When it is going down or standing still the searches tend to go down and mimic that price action, which would seem fairly intuitive. 

Either way though, it is interesting to note the correlation and see that the actual numbers support what me might have already been assuming to be the case.

Some statistics:

Bitcoin searches have gone up 450% since April of 2017.

During that time the price of Bitcoin went from roughly $1,076 to a high of roughly $5,000 just a few weeks ago. 

Since June 2017, the number of searches for Ethereum (another virtual currency) is roughly equal to the number of searches for Bitcoin.

Currently, Bitcoin is trading around $4,024 per coin.

The Million Dollar Question:

Do these searches lead or trail the price of Bitcoin?

Wouldn't it be great if we could use Google searches as a predictor of price using this data going forward?

It would be beyond great!

Sadly, that likely won't be the case as it wasn't stated whether this data predicted or trailed the price of Bitcoin.

However, it is probably safe to say that the most likely answer is that it trails the price of Bitcoin, likely for some of the reasons stated above.

Thanks for reading and hope you found this study at least somewhat interesting like I did. 

Stay informed my friends.

Sources:

http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-price-correlation-google-search-2017-9

Image Sources:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/6aiked/bitcoin_google_search_trend_vs_bitcoin_value_oc/

http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-price-correlation-google-search-2017-9

Follow me: @jrcornel

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Hi ,
Thanks for the great content

Thank you for posting @jrcornel.

Steemians enjoy your articles related to Bitcoin.

Interesting study.

All the best. Cheers.

+5

Thank you @shla-rafia. How have you been?

All the best to you. Cheers.

Ups and downs, all the best to you too!

Mhhh so we have to choose; Search all Day for topics about btc or write new blogs and comments on steem. I prefer use steem and make this BIG.
Its up to us to add value and benefit!!

Great point. I have already seen the number of influencers arriving here rising pretty significantly over the past few months. Now if they could just bring their followings with them...

Yes @keiserreport announced on air on RT 7/20/17 that they joined Steemit (their account was created 6/17/17). Stacy or Max check in about once or twice a week so they have not kept a big presence here but it is a start (31 posts, 103 comments to date). Hopefully, that will grow!

I believe it does, and Im even more surprised to find out what countries lead in bitcoin searches
fffff.png
Pretty awesome if you ask me!!

I think it is

I believe that google searches can potentially be a proxy for interest in bitcoin. That being said, I think it is too small to make meaningful differences (when I say meaningful, I mean, how can we, as bitcoin investors/traders/whatever actually make buying and selling decisions based on this information). Here's an idea to supplement your research to create a more powerful proxy: check out search terms such as "buy bitcoin" in google trends to see how that changes over time. I imagine people who search things like that are ordinary folks trying to get some bitcoin. I don't actually think we've quite gotten to the point yet where people who've never even heard of coinbase are trying to buy bitcoin (less than 1% of 1% of internet users use bitcoin).

I feel as though it would only be a vaguely valid correlation in BTC's early years of growth. It would be interesting to see in a few more years, whether BTC settles into stability or if it rockets/sinks.

Yes, the more data we have to go off of the better. So far, there is a pretty strong correlation.

Good point, this type of effect is likely conditional on stage.

Great concept but you are right we need to know if it is the lead or the trail. I'm thinking that once people buy in they are very interested in what is happening with BTC so most likely the latter or at least a mix of interest from both sides lead and trail!

Yea, unfortunately it is likely the latter as it probably trails the price. However, perhaps it should be monitored more closely to see if there are any possibly predictors in that trend. :)

Thanks for the insights - I try to keep informed! Currently too much smell of Beer around me lol

Haha I hope it isn't 10 am over there like it is here. ;)

nope - you can check my Oktoberfest series - but be aware the recent one is nothing for weak personalities lol - thanks for taking time to reply

"If you torture the data long enough, it will confess."

Great touch

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very interesting, I'll certainly check that out!

interesting. like it!!!!

that's a very good article @jrcornel, keep it up
i also mad an article about bitcoin if you want to check it, here is the link : https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@youssefs0102/raisons-makes-you-feel-worry-about-bitcoin
hope you like it , and i am starting to follow you

Though my answer to this question is NO yet I liked the title of this post.

In order to create a legal framework for the currency of the Btc and other digital currencies, the Indian Government is now considering the launch of its own currency, which is similar to the currency of the BTC. The Government Digital Currency is to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Government Indian Betquin

The Indian government is considering a "proposal to introduce its own currency, like the Betquin coin," the Bossines Standard newspaper reported on Saturday. So that this digital currency, which will be managed by the state will be called Lakshmi "Lakshmi," and this name is attributed to the name of the gods of wealth, wealth and prosperity of Hindus. According to close sources:

"The proposal was discussed by a committee of government officials and once the decision was made about the new digital currency, it would be included within the RBI. Some laws, such as the currency code, may be amended. So this process will take a long time. "

The news comes after a speech on digital currencies by Indian Reserve Bank of India (SUD) Executive Director Sudarshan Sen on the day of the India Financial Technology Conference. Hinting at the time that the government may enter its own legal digital currency that will be issued by the Reserve Bank of India. "Now we have a group of people who are looking for digital currencies, as an alternative to the Indian Rupee, so to speak. So we look forward to it very closely. "In addition, he stressed that the central bank is not comfortable with unstable currencies such as BTC.

Work on the regulation of digital currency and BTC

At the same time, the Indian government is working on a legal framework for the currency of the BTCbitcoin-india.jpgand other digital currencies. Last week, the financial controller said that "the government will prepare a regulatory framework for the biotech soon." In April, the Government established itself as a commission to investigate the currency of the Pitcairn. Last month, the financial controller also reported that the committee had submitted its report to the government, recommending the establishment of "strict control" of the digital currency, the news source said, adding that "there is no possibility of immediate restraint", but the government also does not support the promotion For this restriction. The Committee also recommended the establishment of a task force consisting of officers from the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Securities and Exchange Commission of India (SEBI), the Income Tax Service, the Central Council for Taxation and Customs (CBEC) and the Financial Intelligence Unit. According to the news source, financial intelligence will monitor the disadvantages of digital currencies

Very interesting @jrcornel

@jrcornel,very informative article about Bitcoin you shared with us in which bitcoin prizes up and down as well as bitcoin in google search. and we all r hopefull for the best.

I wonder if this works for other cryptos as well???

Thats such a useful information. Thanks @jrcornel.

It would be a good experience for your happy life
Thank you for your posting

what a good observation. Makes complete sense though! Thanks for this fun fact.

I am very sure that these many searches would take place when china ban on ICO's and when bitcoin reached $5000.

Yes, although this data looks at the past year, not just the past couple months.

onwards and upwards

Reminds me of how you can use google to track flu epidemics by looking at searches for flu medicine etc.

Intuitively I was thinking the same thing while reading - it must trail the price... and I'm assuming the people doing the searches are the people like me who are always a bit behind the active traders buying and selling at bottoms and tops! What kind of serious crypto mover is looking up Bitcoin on Google, they've got their trackers to hand already after all.

Having said that, there must be some kind of predictions we can make with this search data - just maybe more long-term rather than micro-time type predictions.

Nice post! it´s so useful to check it more.
Can any of you give me an official page to check the real value of steemit in other currency/coin? Please!

I think a better question is wouldnt it be great if we could do searches without feeding the behemoth called Google?

A decentralized search engine is going to be wonderful.

Now that is something that I predict we will see very shortly.

Maybe we should all search 'Steem' 5 times a day on Google!

Really good informative post ! thanks for share it with the community my friend <3

thanks for posting nice information @jcornel

Hi,
very interesting! Thanks for sharing.

good work!!

Cool article! Good point that the trending searches trails the price of bitcoin.

wow nice post I really like it I always follow your cool post

https://steemit.com/art/@imranroza/syukuri-apa-yang-ada-2017920t174556804z

hot post like it

great post like it and upvoted...

I think the most frequent search queries are about Bitcoin's predictions, expert opinion and any information that will help make the right investments and take complex decisions on the exchange.

Great post there. I believe the price will bounce back.

I suppose it is not connected to the price, but too the level of price changes. Which means if prices will suddenly go down the frequency in searching of bitcoin keywords will also drastically increase.

Emotions will make people searching over and over things about bitcoin in this situation.

I'm a bitcoin booster too, but I'd caution against conflating correlation and causation.