Data visualization experts say search trend maps are mostly bunk

To Andrew Piper, a professor and director of the .txtLAB at McGill University in Montreal, that's another potential pitfall and danger of data visualizations like these: People read a lot into it. "Just picking the top [word] isn't a good way of representing what comes across as really important semantic implications," he said. "Are people googling 'pneumonia' because it's raining in BC? We have no idea."

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