Struggle leader tops trends on Google

FOLLOWING the announcement of Struggle veteran Winnie MadikizelaMandela’s death, Google Trends revealed that there were more than 500 000 searches for her name.

“It should hardly be surprising that maWinnie dominated Google search trends this week, given the role she played in South Africa’s recent history,” said Google.

Searches for maWinnie “far outstripped” celebrated poet Dr Maya Angelou’s 90th birthday and Liverpool, which received more than 100 000 searches.

On Monday, maWinnie died peacefully in a Johannesburg hospital, aged 81, with her family by her.

She will be given a state funeral at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto on April 14.

With her death, South Africa lost one of its political icons. As the country mourned, its citizens took to Google to find out more about the woman labelled the “Mother of the Nation”.

Another powerful icon, civil rights activist and poet Angelou, trended on Wednesday. There were more than 100 000 searches for her name.

On the same day, Liverpool trended, partly due to their 3-0 victory over Premier League rivals Manchester City in the Uefa Champions League quarter-finals.

There can be little doubt, however, that home fans throwing bottles and beer cans at the Manchester City bus added to the search activity.

Football also dominated on Tuesday, when Real Madrid received more than 100 000 searches in the wake of their 3-0 victory over Juventus in the Champions League.

Other terms to trend during the week included “Zindzi Mandela” and “April Fools Pranks” (both 20 000+ searches).

Google processes more than 40 000 search queries every second. Google trends data is updated hourly.