The number of Google Search queries have gone down in some parts of the US. How would you investigate this?

In this question, the interviewer is asking you to detail a potential investigation process into why Google search queries have decreased in certain areas of the US. The purpose of this question is to assess your ability to solve problems and think analytically, as well as your familiarity with various investigative processes and potentially your knowledge about Google search algorithms or user behaviors. Key points to consider in your response might include: establishing a hypothesis, gathering data, analyzing data, interpreting the findings, and suggesting next steps based on your findings.

I would begin by forming some potential hypotheses on why the search queries may have gone down in these particular areas. It might be due to changes in internet connectivity in those areas, a shift in user behavior, a rise in the usage of a competing search engine, or perhaps an error in data reporting.

To test the hypotheses, I would gather data across a range of variables. For instance, I could obtain data on the demography, internet usage, technological trends, economic factors, and competitor activities in those regions. Additionally, I might look for any changes or anomalies in our own system that might have contributed to the drop.

After gathering the pertinent data, I'd analyze it, looking for trends or anomalies. This may involve advanced data visualization, statistical analysis, or even machine learning algorithms to spot patterns or outliers.

Once I have an interpretation of what's happening, I'd put together a report detailing why search queries have dropped and suggest possible interventions that can be implemented or further studies that could be carried out to fully understand and address the issue.

Investigating a decline in Google Search queries would involve multiple steps. Firstly, it would be key to define the scope of the problem. Is the decrease across all demographics and sectors or is it focused in a certain area or industry? This would involve analyzing sample regions and demographic groups to identify patterns.

Next, I would look into external factors that could potentially impact the usage of the search engine. This could include things like changes to internet regulation or policies, regional outages or slowdowns for ISP, the emergence of a competitive search platform, to name a few.

Then, diving into internal factors, maybe it's a change in Google's search algorithm, perhaps a new update has led to a drop in the usage in some areas or there has been an issue with the tracking of search queries.

If no clear reason is present from these probes, I would also consider conducting survey studies in the impacted regions to identify possible behavioral or preference changes.

Finally, the conclusion of this investigation would be a detailed inference or set of inferences about why the decline has occurred, clarified with data, and followed by a set of recommended actions or further investigations.