For our Google Trends prediction models , we will apply SFPS - BVE to the entire dataset , consisting of 84 days , without setting aside any days for testing . We do this since we are predominantly interested in analyzing the impact of local and nationwide COVID-19 data on the three Google Trends variables rather than quantifying the predictive capacity of such variables . When analyzing Google Mobility data , however , we set aside the last seven days of our study period ( May 23rd -May 29th ) to also comment on the predictive capacity of our obtained models . We elect to use a test set for this analysis since these variables are the primary focus of this study , and we wish to assess the predictive and extrapolatory capacity of the obtained models .