title: Revisiting the Rise of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems Using Search Query Surveillance.
abstract: Public perceptions of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) remain poorly understood because surveys are too costly to regularly implement and, when implemented, there are long delays between data collection and dissemination. Search query surveillance has bridged some of these gaps. Herein, ENDS' popularity in the U.S. is reassessed using Google searches.
  
  
  
  ENDS searches originating in the U.S. from January 2009 through January 2015 were disaggregated by terms focused on e-cigarette (e.g., e-cig) versus vaping (e.g., vapers); their geolocation (e.g., state); the aggregate tobacco control measures corresponding to their geolocation (e.g., clean indoor air laws); and by terms that indicated the searcher's potential interest (e.g., buy e-cigs likely indicates shopping)-all analyzed in 2015.
  
  
  
  ENDS searches are rapidly increasing in the U.S., with 8,498,000 searches during 2014 alone. Increasingly, searches are shifting from e-cigarette- to vaping-focused terms, especially in coastal states and states where anti-smoking norms are stronger. For example, nationally, e-cigarette searches declined 9% (95% CI=1%, 16%) during 2014 compared with 2013, whereas vaping searches increased 136% (95% CI=97%, 186%), even surpassing e-cigarette searches. Additionally, the percentage of ENDS searches related to shopping (e.g., vape shop) nearly doubled in 2014, whereas searches related to health concerns (e.g., vaping risks) or cessation (e.g., quit smoking with e-cigs) were rare and declined in 2014.
  
  
  
  ENDS popularity is rapidly growing and evolving. These findings could inform survey questionnaire development for follow-up investigation and immediately guide policy debates about how the public perceives the health risks or cessation benefits of ENDS.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Public Health, San Diego State University, San Diego, California. Electronic address: ayers.john.w@gmail.com.
authors.forename: John W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Ayers
authors.affiliation: The Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico.
authors.forename: Benjamin M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Althouse
authors.affiliation: Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: Jon-Patrick
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Allem
authors.affiliation: University of California San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, California.
authors.forename: Eric C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Leas
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Human Language Technology Center of Excellence, Baltimore, Maryland.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dredze
authors.affiliation: Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Rebecca S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Williams
mesh_terms: D003132:Commerce / Q000191:economics; D066300:Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D057226:Information Seeking Behavior; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D061845:Smoke-Free Policy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D062789:Tobacco Products / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000072137:Vaping / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends