Can Irish search traffic on Google predict the outcome of the 2011 general election? Piers Dillon-Scott examines if Google can gauge the mood of the people. If so Fine Gael will be the largest party in the 31st Dáil, with just under 40% of the vote, if search traffic on Google translates into first preferences in February 25.
“Jesus loves you” was the most searched term on Google News in the UK and Ireland in 2010, according to Google Insights for Search. In Ireland the term was 20 times more popular than “ireland“, the next highest ranking term. “Jesus loves you” even outranked search terms such as “gerry ryan“, “weather” and “haiti“. In the UK it was 10 times more popular than the second search term “news“.