# How the Gift Heat Index works

## What we measure

How many times a month people in the United States search Google for a gift. The numbers are Google Ads search volumes, which we get through DataForSEO. Our current data runs from October 2025 to September 2026.

## How we decide the verdict

We compare the most recent month with the oldest month in the series. Up 15% or more is Heating up. Down 30% or more is Cooling. In between is Steady. A search that went from under 100 to over 500 a month is Just appearing.

## Seasonal is not cooling

Many gifts drop every January and come back every December. We label them Seasonal, never Cooling, when their November or December peak is at least three times their usual level and searches are already picking up again. A one-off spike that never comes back is a fad, not a season.

## What the colors mean

In the monthly squares, color only shows volume: the darker the square, the more searches that month, relative to that gift's own best month. In verdicts, warm means rising and blue means cooling.

## What we don't do

We don't test products, we don't show prices, and we never mark something as rising because a brand paid us. We link to a shop only after checking that the product exists and is in stock in the US.

## Limits

We have one year of data so far, so year-over-year comparisons use the oldest month available. Search volumes are rounded by Google and published with a delay of a few weeks.