Official Google Canada Blog: April Search Trends: Playoff Edition

Official Canada Blog

News and notes from Google Canada

April Search Trends: Playoff Edition

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Trending this month on Google:

Boston marathon / Boston marathon explosion

Kevin Ware

Margaret Thatcher

Rehtaeh Parsons

Rita MacNeil

Roger Ebert

Finding Dory

Texas Explosion

Psy Gentleman

NHL

The Leafs make the Playoffs!

T.S. Eliot once described April as the cruelest month. The guy was clearly a Leafs fan.

If you take a look at Google searches for Maple Leafs in April - the month where playoff fates are finalized in the NHL - interest in the Buds basically flatlined after 2004. But this April, searches for the Maple Leafs are outpacing previous years by a factor of two to three hundred percent. Making the playoffs has that sort of effect.

What's also interesting... As you might suspect, searches for the Maple Leafs are very popular in Ontario. But the province responsible for the most Googles-per-capita for the term "Maple Leafs" in April: Newfoundland.

Leafs Nation?

Since 2004, nationwide searches for the Toronto Maple Leafs tend to outpace searches for the Montreal Canadiens. Except in April and May - you know, when it’s time for the playoffs. Well, that trend may be reversed this year. Heading into the first round, searches for the Maple Leafs are outpacing the Habs and Canada’s other playoff contenders (Senators and Canucks) by over 35%.

Not to suggest that Quebecers are anything but diehard fans of Le Tricolore, but searches in Quebec for “Leafs” are keeping pace with searches for “Habs”.

NEWS Boston Strong The tragic events in Boston dominated Google searches this past month. Over 25 percent of the top 100 trending searches in Canada were related to the bombings, including trending terms such as Watertown, Chechnya, and the Boston Globe. Canada Terror Plot Searches for Via Rail doubled this month as news of an alleged plot to bomb a Via Rail train broke in the news. Bird Flu A deadly strain of Bird Flu, H7N9, emerged this past month in China. Worldwide Google searches for “H7N9” spiked in mid-April with the reports of over 20 deaths in rural China linked to this avian flu. In Canada, search interest in this latest deadly flu strain was highest in British Columbia. The response from Chinese health authorities has been rapid, and by the end of the month searches for H7N9 were tapering off on Google BUSINESS Real Estate Despite news of Canada’s housing market cooling down, Google searches for “mortgage calculator” remain near the highest levels since 2008, coming close to the same kind of search volume we saw last year during the first round of the “mortgage wars”. And we’re seeing similar search patterns for the real estate listing website, MLS. That said, the numbers tell a slightly different story, when broken down by province. Saskatchewan is leading mortgage-related search activity this month, followed by Alberta and Manitoba. Meanwhile, British Columbia searches are 25% off their 2012 high. Bitcoin The peer-to-peer digital currency went on a bit of a rollercoaster this month, seeing its value jump to over $260 USD before dropping down to $105. Those ups downs resulted in bitcoin’s largest spike in search activity since the currency’s creation in 2008. Among the top 10 searches this month associated with the virtual cash: “What is Bitcoin?”
ENTERTAINMENT PSY The K-Pop sensation behind Gangam Style is back with a new hit. Released on April 12th, Gentleman has set YouTube records for most views in its first 24 hours, most views in any 24 hours, fastest music video to reach 100 million views. Gangnam Style remains the most popular video of all time on YouTube with 1.5 billion views to date. And Canadians are searching for “Psy” on YouTube even more than our neighbours to the south; and more now than at the height of Psy’s Gangnam style popularity last year. The "Harlem Shake" had recently challenged Psy and "Gangnam Style" for the top position in pop culture. Psy felt a lot of pressure to satisfy his growing fanbase, saying "Of course I feel more burden than before, because lots of people are watching." The new dance is characterized by fast, hip-swinging movements. Where’s Nemo? Try Google Worldwide searches for “42 Wallaby Way” spiked this month with news of a sequel to ‘Finding Nemo’. This fictitious Sydney street address was the mantra for the forgetful blue surgeon fish, Dory, in the 2003 Pixar hit. The sequel “Finding Dory” was announced this month on Ellen (who is the voice of Dory), and is due in theatres in late 2015. MISCELLANIA Google Nose Fallout!Google announced its latest addition to the search engine’s arsenal called Google Nose BETA, where searching for “diaper,” “dumpster,” “airport terminal” or “wet dog” yields results in Google’s "Aromabase." The April Fools joke from Google promised "to offer the sharpest olfactory experience available” in a search engine. Of course, Google Nose is completely fictitious, but that hasn’t stopped Canadians from searching popular terms like “unattended litter box,” “diaper,” “dumpster,” “wet dog” and “airport terminal” ... terms which all appeared in the trending terms for the month.Posted by Aaron Brindle, Google Canada

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