Spain’s biggest football rivalry, the funeral of Akhumzi Jezile, and the Met Gala were among the top trending search topics in South Africa over the past seven days.
Barcelona vs Real Madrid is one of the world’s biggest football rivalries. When the two Spanish giants play each other, everyone interested in the sport pays attention. That was again demonstrated on Sunday when the clash drew more than 100 000 searches in South Africa. On the day, the two played to a 2-2 draw, despite Barcelona’s Sergi Roberto receiving a red card late in the first half.
Also on Sunday, Chelsea took on Liverpool, attracting more than 50 000 searches. The game saw the London team beat the Reds 1-0, as they looked to secure a spot in the UEFA Champions League. The win was not enough to guarantee them a top four finish, however, as they still need other results to go their way.
On Saturday, South African actor, presenter, and producer Akhumzi Jezile was laid to rest in Johannesburg following his tragic death in an Eastern Cape car crash the week before. Having risen to fame as a presenter on YoTV, many South Africans grew up with Jezile as a steady presence in their lives. The term “Akhumzi Funeral” saw more than 50 000 searches on the day.
On Tuesday, meanwhile, South Africans bought into the glamour of the Met Gala, with the term drawing 50 000+ searches. The annual fundraising event, held for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City, is a chance for celebrities to wear outlandish outfits, based on a different theme every year.
Other terms to trend during the week included “Cape Town Weather” (20 000+ searches), “Alex Ferguson” (20 000+ searches), and “Maps” (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. Google trends data is updated hourly and is available on https://www.google.co.za/trends.
Search trends in South Africa tend to be news and sports-driven. People search for things they hear or see on the news, and sports search terms trend several times a week, on average, every week.
Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Through products and platforms like Search, Maps, Gmail, Android, Google Play, Chrome and YouTube, Google plays a meaningful role in the daily lives of billions of people and has become one of the most widely-known companies in the world. Google is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.
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