Sports searches dominated the list of the most sought-after topics on the Net in the last 90 days, demonstrating the link between events and online searches.
Topics such as “Olympics 2012”, “Arsenal transfer news”, “Arsenal latest news” and “Euro 2012” were very prominent searches by East Africans in the past 90 days.
The transfer of Robin van Persie from Arsenal to English Premier League arch rivals Manchester United boosted searches related to Arsenal transfer news. The findings revealed that major events have a significant influence on web searches, with Miguna Miguna, a former aide to the Kenyan Prime Minister, coming in at number four in July after he launched a tell all book.
“Seen through Google lenses through the Insights for Search tool, the 90-day mini Zeitgeist compiled between June and August showed that the majority of queries by internet users in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and Rwanda were centered on sports news,” Google Kenya said in a statement.
“Google Zeitgeist revealed that in the 90 days under review, the top 10 most searched queries in Uganda were all sports-related. In Rwanda, the aggregated searches put Euro Cup 2012 at the top of the list with news about the forced recruitment of young men into the M23 rebel group coming a close second,” Google reported.
Miguna Miguna launched his book about the corruption in the Kenyan PM’s office in July. It went on to receive thousands of illegal downloads after a copy of it leaked in the media. This political episode made waves across social media, dividing opinion.
Google says that such information can be important to marketers, communicators and other professionals, providing an informative channel for producers of consumer products to see where the conversations surrounding their product or sector are taking place. This in turn gives a clear indication of where to advertise online.
For a while now, the most searched term in Kenya and Nigeria has been Entrepreneurship, according to Google Trends.
