Candidate Data Via Google Insights

Patrick — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:53 +0000

The 2008 Presidential candidates are among the millions of subjects searched for on the Internet. Leave it to Google to provide the tool by which an aggregate of search data can be mined through to show telling signs of the public’s behavior. I’m speaking of Google Insights, their tool to “see what the world is searching for.”

So I was curious about how the search patterns for the candidates would look. Below are my findings.

All Candidates Overall Search Volume for the Past 90 Days

We all know who the obvious celebrity in the race is, Sarah Palin. Not only is she popular in political conversation, but her online popularity has been boosted by Tina Fey’s impression of her on Saturday Night Live.

Search Volume for “barack obama” by State

I think it’s interesting to note that some of the south eastern states are fairly interested in the Democratic candidate.

Search Volume for “john mccain” by State

Colorado must be the most political state of them all.

Cities Most Interested in Each Candidate

Once again, Colorado represents. And although the state, by volume, searches the most for “john mccain”, Denver doesn’t register at all in the Top 10 searches for “john mccain”, while they’re number one for “barack obama”.

Barack Obama, Per Capita, Most Popular in Cameroon

The United States comes in sixth for the popularity of “barack obama”. Cameroon, Gabon, Rwanda, Kenya, and Cote d’Ivoire all beat us out.

Interesting Related Search Term to “barack obama”

Apparently people think there’s much not to believe about Barack Obama. Snopes is a website that dispels urban myths.