Jacob Zuma was the name on everyone’s lips this week.
It’s been a busy week for South Africans, as they waited to find out whether Jacob Zuma would resign or be pushed out by parliament.
Ultimately, he chose the first option, announcing his resignation late on Wednesday night.
The Google search peak, however, came on Tuesday, when the term “Zuma” saw more than 500 000 searches. This after the ANC National Executive Committee announced that it would recall him.
While South Africans were celebrating Jacob Zuma’s political demise on Wednesday night, they were also learning about the death of Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, resulting in more than 100 000 searches for his name.
For a long time, Tsvangirai was former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe’s most formidable opponent and, in 2008, came close to unseating him. Ultimately, however, cancer caught up with the veteran politician. He was 65.
Interestingly, given that South Africa only has one athlete competing, the Winter Olympics have generated some serious search interest, with more than 200 000 searches occuring on Friday.
On a less serious note, several Valentine’s Day-related searches trended throughout the week. “Valentine’s Day Quotes” saw more than 50 000 searches on Wednesday and “Valentine’s Day” did the same on Tuesday, along with “Happy Valentines Day My Love” and “Valentine Messages”.
Finally, illustrating South Africa’s love of football, “Real Madrid” saw more than 100 000 searches on Tuesday, following their victory over PSG.
Other terms that trended included “Duduzane Zuma” (50 000+ searches), “Nedbank Cup Results” (50 000+ searches), and “Ash Wednesday” (20 000+ searches).
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.