CAPE TOWN - Google processes more than 40 000+ search queries every second.
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This means that there are more than a billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide. Google trends data is updated hourly and the data has shown that Search trends in South Africa are news and sports-driven.
In this week, News of the death of jazz musician Hugh Masakela shook South Africans of all ages. This resulted in his name being searched more than 200 000 times on the day.
Given that “Bra Hugh” died of prostate cancer, the condition also trended on the day, seeing 20 000+ searches. Additionally, the Rand to Dollar exchange rate slipped below R12 for the first time since May 2015.
The improved rate has been put down to a combination of a new ANC administration and some ill-advised comments from the US Treasury Secretary.
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As a result, the term “Rand to Dollar” saw more than 20 000 searches. Another trend this week is that South Africans were interested in finding the the Lotto results.
The terms “Lotto” (20 000+ searches) and “Lotto SA” (10 000+ searches) took the top two places on the day. Other terms that trended during the week included “AKA Star Signs” (20 000+ searches) as people looked for the hip hop artist’s new single.
“Arsenal” (20 000+ searches) in the wake of the English football giants making it into the League Cup Final, and “Jabu Mabuza” (20 000+ searches), who was appointed Eskom chairperson over the weekend.