Boks’ Japan loss joins ranks of tjatjarag in search trends
THE Springboks’ shock opening match in the Rugby World Cup joined tjatjarag citizenry and celebrity mud-slinging matches on social media in dominating South African search trends on Google this September.
“With more almost 30 search terms in just one trend cluster‚ the Rugby World Cup was a major priority among South Africans‚” Google said‚ adding the keywords included “rugby world cup opening ceremony‚” “rugby world cup fixtures‚” and “rugby world cup schedule”.
The Springboks’ unprecedented loss to the “Cherry Blossoms” of Japan‚ “was such a shock to South Africa that it featured in a trend cluster all of its own”‚ Google said.
This information from data collated is gleaned by Google based on what South Africans have been searching over the month.
Trending search terms on a common theme are automatically grouped into trend clusters.
Rugby was not the only sport South Africans were interested in last month. Also appearing, were searches relating to US Open tennis‚ boxing and the perennial favourite among South Africans‚ European and South African soccer.
In the celebrity world‚ there was one clear story that had South Africa Googling: the ongoing saga of Bonang Matheba‚ AKA and DJ Zinhle.
With four search clusters relating to the allegations by DJ Zinhle that Matheba had been a third party to the relationship between herself and the rapper AKA‚ it was by far the most searched celebrity-related story.
Then there was the “Metro Man”: Clive Naidoo.
Naidoo featured on the trends data following his viral quarrel with Johannesburg Metro Police Department officer Laurencia Shitlhelana.
“Related to that viral video‚ Clive Naidoo’s home suburb‚ Bloubosrand‚ appeared in a trend cluster all of its own.”
In more serious news‚ the discovery of Homo naledi‚ the Clearwater Mall shooting‚ and the Chile earthquake also featured on last month’s search trends.
● Google processes more than 40 000 search queries every second which translate to more than billion searches a day and 1.2 trillion searches a year worldwide. — RDM News Wire