Over the past seven days, South African search trends were dominated by the Super Rugby final, a taxi strike that left thousands of Cape Town commuters stranded, and several high-profile local football matches.
On Friday, there was high levels of search interest in the Super Rugby final with “Lions vs Crusaders 2018” (50 000+ searches) the top trending search. The final, which took place on Saturday, saw the Crusaders claim a 37-18 win and their ninth Super Rugby title.
On Saturday, local football dominated trends with “Mamelodi Sundowns Vs Kaizer Chiefs” and “Orlando Pirates” both garnering more than 50 000 searches on the day. The clash between Mamelodi Sundowns and Kaizer Chiefs ended in 1-1 draw. Orlando Pirates also drew 1-1 in their clash with Highlands Park, having to come back from an own goal in the 15th minute.
The next day, South Africans learned of the shock death of Khensani Maseko. A Rhodes University student, Maseko took her own life after being raped on campus. Maseko’s death has reawakened conversations around the way universites deal with rape on their campuses. There were more than 50 000 searches for her name on the day.
Also trending on Sunday was “Chelsea vs Man. City” (50 000+ searches) as the two English football giants clashed in the Community Shield. Manchester City walked away as winners on the day.
Coming into the new week, “taxi strike Cape Town” (20 000+ searches) was the top trending term. The strike, which centred on a internal dispute among local industry players, left thousands of commuters stranded and placed severe strain on other forms of public transport in the city.
Finally, on Tuesday “Kaizer Chiefs vs Bidvest Wits”(50 000+ searches) was the top trending search term. That match ended in a 3-1 win for the Clever Boys, allowing them to retain top spot in the PSL.
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.