Google Search Patterns More Reliable Than Polls?
The Google blog has an interesting post on the search trends during the debate last night on the terms people search during the debate… and how you can get insight into people’s thoughts.
It reflects the topics that grabbed the viewer and also the mood.
People searched the meaning of several key words as the candidates presented: morass, commodity, junket, cynicism, and cronyism were a few. Hmmm.
People were also quite interested in both Meg Whitman and Warren Buffett, both mentioned as possible candidates for the Secretary of Treasury, but the biggest was Senator McCain’s paraphrasing of Theodore Roosevelt’s motto.
Both candidates spoke against genocide while discussing the role of the United States as a peacekeeper, nuclear energy and weapons were prominent topics.
It also seems that Queries containing “Biden” and “Palin” had higher peaks during last week’s debate than did “McCain” and “Obama” queries last night.
Google’s search results agree with my thoughts – the debate sucked last night… Tom Brokaw killed what could have been a good debate.
