South Africa’s obsession with football and politics once again shone through on Google Search Trends this week. Dominating searches were PSL giants Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns as well as EFF leader Julius Malema and the Gauteng Department of Education’s admissions site.
Following his speech at Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s memorial service on Saturday, Julius Malema attracted more than 50 000 searches. In the speech, the EFF commander-in-chief railed against ANC leaders and others who he felt had betrayed the struggle veteran. There was also controversy after he was accused of assaulting a police officer at the memorial.
On Sunday meanwhile there were more than 50 000 searches for Orlando Pirates as they took on Durban side Amazulu. In the end, the Buccaneers won 2-1, consolidating their hold on second place in the PSL.
Six points ahead of them at the top of the table are Mamelodi Sundowns, who retained their lead with a 1-0 win over Golden Arrows on Tuesday. The match attracted more than 50 000 searches on the day.
Outside of football and politics, “Gde Admissions 2019” (20 000+ searches) was the top trending search term on Monday. For a couple of years now, the Gauteng Department of Education has asked parents to apply for their children’s 2019 Grade 1 and 8 school spots using a website. The process hasn’t always been without problems, but this year’s registration drive seemed to be comparatively incident-free.
Other topics to trend during the week included “Bournemouth Vs Man United” (20 000+ searches), “Kaizer Chiefs Vs Platinum Stars (20 000+ searches), and “Man City” (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.
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