Never mind the opinions of all of the government types, the bankers, and so on.  They’re the ones who got us into this mess, right?  Perhaps more interesting and encouraging is the fact that search and advertising giant Google thinks the economy is improving.

Cecilia Kang spoke to Hal Varian, Google’s chief economist, and Varian saw hope in recent search trends.  Apparently people are searching for terms related to unemployment less, which seems like a good sign.  (Varian said this has actually corresponded to initial jobless claims in the past.)

Also, people are searching for terms related to housing and real estate agents more.  So perhaps all of the government offers (and the real estate market crash itself) have made it possible for more people to get into homes.  That’d be nice.

And it’s important to remember that Varian does work for Google.  So even if he didn’t get into the company’s finances, it’s reasonable to assume that they’re in decent shape or he wouldn’t have been so chatty.

Let’s hope all of these insights and assumptions are correct, anyway.  Varian told Kang, “The die is cast and things seem to be moving in the right direction.  Let’s stay the course.”