Top Internet Search Terms
Surprisingly ‘Janet Jackson’ topped the list. I guess if one takes her rather exposing performance at the Surperbowl into account it explains the ranking. Less surprising were the terms ‘Hurricane Katrina’ and ‘tsunami’ which vied for position two and three.
The term ‘xBox’ was the fourth most searched term, and from here onwards celebrities in the news took over. ‘Brad Pitt’ finished 5th, ‘Michael Jackson’ 6th, ‘American Idol’ 7th, ‘Britney Spears’ 8th, ‘Angelina Jolie’ 9th and ‘Harry Potter’ 10th.
When we consider the Google’s South African search terms the story looks very different.
The top three search terms during November were ‘absa’, ‘christmas’ and ‘computicket’. Hardly what one classifies as entertainment.
‘Webmail’, ‘3gp’, ‘kulula’, ‘ipod’, ‘www.fnb.co.za’, ‘standard bank’ and ‘summer’ completes the top 10 creating a rather bland line-up when compared to our overseas neighbours.
It is obvious that South Africans are using the Internet more for business related issues than their international counterparts.
There are nearly no entertainment related search terms in the local top 10 while International searches are dominated by these terms.
The high cost of local Internet access (especially on dial-up) coupled with the fact that many users access the Net from work may account for the fact that South Africans use the Internet as a business tool.
It is not surprising taking these factors into consideration that online banking and email dominates local Internet usage.
With increased broadband penetration this trend is likely to change.
When users have unlimited or un-metered Internet access they will start to explore the web and realize that there is more to it than reading emails, transferring funds or reading the latest news.
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