The annual report by Google on the top search topics around the world provides some interesting insights into what makes the world — and America — tick. It is interesting to see what we have in common, but it may be more interesting to find the differences.
The number one search topic around the world and in most countries was the 2018 World Cup. Maybe not too surprising. Somebody warn the National Football League though, because it was also the number one search topic in America as well. And we didn’t even qualify for the playoffs! It was also the number one search topic in Russia and China although China didn’t qualify for the playoffs either.
Besides the World Cup, the other five search items that spiked both in America and globally were: Kate Spade, Anthony Bourdain, Stan Lee, Black Panther (the movie) and… this one surprised me…
MAC MILLER
For those of you not familiar with him, he’s a 26-year-old rapper known for the wordplay in his songs and who died of a drug overdose this year.
Now you might argue that the worldwide numbers merely reflect American dominance on the Internet. Actually China and India together have four times as many Internet users as the U.S. As a further disclaimer, admittedly Google is not as big in China as Baidu, but it’s still heavily used and it is the number one search engine in India and most of the rest of the world.
So that means this American rapper’s death touched people around the world. That probably speaks to America’s worldwide cultural influence more than its Internet influence. On the flip side of that, it could be argued that the huge interest in World Cup soccer in the U.S. speaks to the globalization - although a limited globalization - of America.
The four topics that made the top ten list in America — but not globally — in terms of SEARCHES were Hurricane Florence, the Elections, Mega-Millions and Demi Lovato, a singer-songwriter who started out on the TV series Barney & Friends.
The four topics that made the top ten SEARCH list worldwide, but not in the U.S. were Meghan Markle, Stephen Hawking, Swedish singer and songwriter Avicii…
And… more surprises…
It’s not surprising that Swedish singer Avicii did not make the American top ten list, but it is surprising that rapper XXXTentacion made the top ten list worldwide but not the American top ten list. It may tell us something… what, I’m not sure.
Under the trending category of NEWS, nine of the top searches both in America and globally were the same: The World Cup (of course), Hurricane Florence, Mega-Millions, Election results, Hurricane Michael, Brett Kavanaugh, the Florida shooting, the Royal Wedding and Government shutdown. Again, that is probably due to a number of factors, including American cultural influence, and although Internet users may be greater in other countries, proportionally Americans probably make more use of the Internet.
The ONE difference: In the U.S. it was (no surprise) the Olympic Medal Count. Globally it was Greve dos caminhoneiros — the Strike of the Truck Drivers in Brazil. Why that drew international attention? Again, I don’t know.
It may also tell you something that five of the thirty topics outlined in the Trends report on the U.S. are in Spanish: Cómo (How), Dónde (Where), Qué es (What is it), Receta (Recipes), and Canciones (Songs). While there were thirty topic areas in the U.S. section there were only eight to ten topic areas globally and for most other countries. Again, I’m not sure what that tells you.
What I found fun to investigate was the top trending TV shows around the world and in America. Four shows made both lists — Roseanne, The Haunting of Hill House, Lost In Space and the new Netflix series Altered Carbon, which Wikipedia described as “a dystopian science fiction cyberpunk web television series.” (Yes, I admit it. I had to look it up.) What’s more interesting are the shows that made the top ten list globally but not in America.
The other shows to make the top ten list in AMERICA were: American Idol; Castle Rock, a Hulu series based on Stephen King’s stories; the HBO series WestWorld; the Netflix series Insatiable; another Network series titled On My Block; and Cobra Kai, which is an adaptation from the Karate Kid. (Again… do you see a pattern here?)
Of the six shows to make the GLOBAL top ten search list, the #1 TV show globally is 延禧攻略 — which translates as either “Delayed Raiders” or “Yanxi Raiders.” It is described by Wikipedia as a “Chinese costume drama.” The more eloquent description comes from the Chinese search engine, Baidu, which describes it as the “story of the courage, dexterous and flexible mind of the maids” as they “resolve the difficulties” of the Imperial court.
In the # 3 position in terms of searches is บุพเพสันนิวาส — which translates as “Bubbly.” It is described by Wikipedia as a “retro TV drama.” It is produced in Thailand. The original producer, Channel 3 TV in Thailand, has a much more descriptive cynopsis, talking about the 25 year old “obese girl” who is an archaeologist in love with a long-time friend.
In the # 4 is मोटू पतलू — which translates as Motu Palalu, the names of two children who are friends. Motu is described as “a fatman who likes to eat samosas.” Palalu is described as “a thin man who likes to drink tea.” It is a cartoon produced in India. The Indian media have a much more descriptive of the show.
The others on the list were Grande Fratello, an Italian version of Big Brother; Segundo Sol, a Brazilian telenovela that translates to Second Chance; and Bodyguard, a Netflix series about a war veteran assigned to protect a politician. Again, somewhat of a surprise is that the English language Bodyguard made the top ten list worldwide but not in the U.S.
The report is a veritable goldmine of information. Think of a topic. Search it. Search it by region. Compare that topic with another. Then figure out what it tells you.
My personal search was a comparison of the term “fake news” with ‘journalism’, to see which scored highest where.
In the U.S., there were more searches for the term journalism (54%) than fake news (46%). But funnily enough (if you have a strange sense of humor), there was even more interest in journalism (59%) than fake news (41%) in Russia. The country with the biggest interest (at least as measured by the search trend report) in fake news was — Brazil (99%), followed by France (91%), Mexico (89%) and Italy (88%). The country with the biggest interest in journalism was Pakistan (82%), followed by Nigeria (81%), India (74%), Indonesia (71%) and Hong Kong (66%).
Why? Why this difference? I don’t know. I can speculate, but I won’t in this article. But I CAN think about it, and in the end that’s what the Google trends report provides — information… facts… perspective. YOU provide the rest.
DISCLAIMER: The report was difficult to navigate in some ways. Google does provide a tutorial of sorts to help walk you through the process. And if that isn’t enough Google has set up a training site to help you understand the Trends research, and that probably tells you something about the depth and complexity of the information.
