Google helps advertisers predict hot search topics

Google has developed a formula to predict hot online search topics in what promises to be a boon for businesses eager to target ads that accompany Internet search results. Engineers in Google's lab in Israel came up with a forecasting model while studying whether past and current search patterns hold reliable clues to what people will seek online in months to come. More than half of the most popular search queries at Google are predictable as far as a year ahead, with a margin of error of about 12 percent, according to the Israel lab engineers.