Building an automated solution to download Google Trends data for a large number of terms.
- Free tutorial
- Rating: 3.9 out of 53.9 (38 ratings)
- 1,949 students
- 1hr 45min of on-demand video
- Created by Sanjeev Baniwal Ph.D.
- English
What you’ll learn
- Set up your own process in R to autonomously download and process large amounts of Google Trends data.
- Automate various tasks used in a day to day life of a data scientist through R.
- Understand each line of code used in the course and how it fits in the bigger picture of a live project.
- Two independent approaches used in the course to access Trends data will reinforce the concept of building R solutions from scratch. In one approach, we will exclusively use Base R methods, and in other, learn how to work with R packages.
- You will be able to run various windows commands from R e.g. copy, rename, delete files on hard disc etc
- Use Window’s Task Scheduler to have desktop run R in batch mode on recurring basis.
- Your R toolbox will become much more diverse and applicable to a wide range of future projects.
Requirements
- No prerequisites, previous exposure to R and windows work environment will be helpful..
- You will need access to R, Windows, Google account, Chrome.
Description
Google Trends is a new tool in a Data Scientist or a Marketing Analyst’s tool box. It provides data that could be quite useful when assessing trend in general public interest in a particular product or an array of products. Trends data essentially gives us a way to assess how often a particular search was performed on world’s most popular search engine.
However, Google Trends only allows a simultaneous search of up to five terms, also it does not provide data through a dedicated API. This course describes two processes in R which could be employed to circumvent both of these issues. First process stitches together R and Windows batch system. Second, utilize gtrendsR package. In both case we set up an automated process.
The course begins by describing Google Trends data itself, and then various R functions relevant to build the automated solution. In the third section, we apply the knowledge from previous sections to build a complete end to end solution.
By the end of the course, we will better understand how R could be employed in more automated manner with minimum human involvement. Additionally, better appreciate the power of Google Trends data to provide a greater understanding of the way the world around us functions.
Who this course is for:
- Those wanting to retrieve and explore large amounts of Google Trends data.
- Students with beginner level of R understanding and those wanting to join course which is not typical beginner’s curriculum. We will stay focused on using R to automate a software process.
- We will NOT deal with any statistics here!
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Course content
4 sections • 14 lectures • 1h 44m total lengthCollapse all sections
Introduction to Google Trends web Search engine1 lecture • 7min
- Introduction06:31
Understanding R functions one at a time9 lectures • 1hr 11min
- Import Export of txt and csv files08:02
- Data Frames in R Part 105:54
- Data Frames in R Part 209:07
- Performing system functions using R12:44
- Understand lapply and docall functions in R07:10
- Review Windows Batch processes08:03
- Write a Windows Batch process from R04:52
- Combinding the power of Batch files with R “For loops”09:50
- Use of an Anchor search term to enable comparative analysis of Trends data05:14
Bringing it all together: Setting up the automated R process.2 lectures • 15min
- Automating a Google Trends data download.08:14
- Scheduling Trends Data Download using R script, .bat, and Task Scheduler06:50
Section 4: Using gTrendsR package2 lectures • 12min
- Getting started with gTrendsR package05:12
- Use gTrendsR to download large amounts of data06:52
