[rasmi]

I purchased this book on sale at the Kindle store to get a detailed sense of what his methodology was, and it seems he just uses Google Trends to compare search volumes across locations combined with Google AdWords to give the data a numerical scale and break down the data demographically. It seems statistically dubious at best, especially the part where he makes assumptions based on search autocomplete results (which vary based on location, IP address, browser, OS, and other factors).

You can read more about his methodology in his papers here [1]. He wrote his PhD thesis on "Essays Using Google Data". I can't think of a better way to do these estimates with the limited data provided, but I'm just not convinced it's a strong enough proxy for the conclusions he's making.

[1] http://sethsd.com/research/

[barrkel]

Bear in mind that he had a look behind the curtain - working at Google and talking to the relevant people about the results does give reason to believe that he knows more about what he's talking about than a dilettante on Google Trends. And if there's anything that economics PhD does you for, it's a large dose of statistics.

[pmarreck]

> assumptions based on search autocomplete results (which vary based on location, IP address, browser, OS, and other factors).

I imagine you could just do the same searches in an Incognito browser window and get results not tailored to you, nor your location, IP, etc. (Or, I would be rather surprised if google searches were STILL tailored to some determinable attribute of you in an incognito browser window.)

I also imagine Seth did this (but only because I would be very surprised if he did not).

[Ded7xSEoPKYNsDd]

Incognito mode doesn't do anything to hide your location or IP (basically the same thing on non-mobile). It's really just meant as a porn mode: nothing you do is saved to disk.

[graphitezepp]

Good for temporary logins to services when using someone else's machine as well.

[thaumasiotes]

As long as your threat model is "I'm worried I'll forget to log out, but I'm not worried I'll forget to close all the incognito windows".

If you're worried about the foreign machine compromising your accounts, incognito mode will do nothing to help you.

[greglindahl]

I'm pretty sure that incognito mode still gets you ip-based and location-based personalization -- try experimenting at your workplace with searches that you think your co-workers might use.