Cape Town - Google had an intense week of searches in South Africa with the potential downfall of another high profile South African company, a rare astronomical phenomenon, The Grammy’s, and Manchester United turned out to be the most searched for items in the SA week.
Google processes more than 40 000+ search queries every second. This translates to more than a billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide. Google trends data is updated hourly.
Search trends in South Africa tend to be news and sports-driven. On Sunday, the Grammy Awards, which were hosted in New York for the first time since 2003, saw more than 50 000 searches. On Tuesday, Capitec came under fire, after investor collective Viceroy released a report alleging accounting irregularities at the bank.
As people looked for information and updates, the term “Capitec” saw more than 200 000 searches.
Also grabbing people’s attention on Tuesday was the term “Blue Moon” (50 000+ searches). While South Africans were unable to enjoy the sight of a super blue blood moon like their counterparts in other parts of the world, they were still interested enough to seek to understand what a blue moon is.
On Wednesday, meanwhile, football ruled the roost. Manchester United saw 50 000+ searches as they battled to a 2-0 loss against Tottenham Hotspur.
Following them were Orlando Pirates (20 000+ searches), who were beaten 3-0 by Ajax Cape Town, and Arsenal (20 000+ searches), following their defeat to Swansea.
Other searches that trended during the week include “Lotto Plus Results” (20 000+ searches), former and now late Glee actor “Mark Salling” (20 000+ searches), “Reiger Park Principal” (20 000+ searches), and ”Roger Federer” (20 000+ searches).