Yes, but the price change happens first so this isn't very useful for predictions, unless you want to predict google trends.
Yes, there were numerous thread discussing this. Most data boils down to this: trends follow price closely, with some spikes related to news articles - but these spikes don't affect the price. Even major hacks/news/TV shows don't cause price swings. The mining difficulty follows price with a few weeks worth of lag.
Too many variables, too many players. It's a chaos, and we are just chasing it and seeing patterns.
