South Africans turned to Google to find out more about religious holidays, the KwaZulu Natal floods and social grants, based on Google search activity in April.
In a rare coincidence, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Jewish Passover and Christian Easter overlapped in April this year. As a result, South Africans turned to Google with questions like “When is Eid?” the celebration which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, and “What is Easter?”.
Following the announcement by the South African Government that people would have to reapply for the R350 SASSA grant, the top searched question for the month was “How to apply for R350?”.
The devastating floods which hit KwaZulu Natal earlier in April were also among the month’s top searches, with “Durban floods” featuring in the most searched terms and “What is happening in KZN?” among the most searched questions.
People also sought more information about South African musician Lira following the announcement that she had suffered a stroke in Germany, and rugby player Pedrie Wannenburg, who was killed in a car crash on 22 April.
In sports, golf dominated the conversation, as the Masters took place at the Augusta National Golf Course early in April. In entertainment, the annual music festival had South Africans asking “What is Coachella?” while Cassper Nyovest and Naakmusiq’s celebrity boxing match was the third most searched term this month. And on the topic of rappers, South Africans were looking for the worst ones, with “Who is the wackest rapper in SA?” ranking as the second most searched question over the past month.
Here’s everything that piqued South Africa’s curiosity in April:
Search trends information is gathered from data collated by Google based on what South Africans have been searching for. Google processes more than 40 000 search queries every second. This translates to more than a billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide. ‘Top searches’ indicate searches that topped Google’s charts while ‘Most searched’ queries are the most popular terms for the past 15 years, ranked in order by volume of searches. Live Google search trends data is available at https://www.google.co.za/trends/hottrends#pn=p40
