Much could be said about the bewildering state of affairs in Iraq, but what do search statistics have to contribute to the pundits’ discussion? Which topics and themes do public interests gravitate toward? Which juicy details are people the most curious about when searching for Iraq online? How do these trends reflect upon the state of our society?
Recent research by Epiar Inc. explored the nature of online search surrounding Iraq and its principle cities. Examining the most popular 7800 search queries that include the words “Iraq”, “Iraqi”, “Baghdad”, or 11 other Iraq cities (using information from Wordtracker, taken from internet searches over the past 90 days), the following topics rose to the top of the public’s mind:
Click here for a full version of this Iraq search statistics report.
Without surprise, words such as “war”, “soldiers”, “military”, and “security” appeared prominently within public search, as did searches for information relating to casualties. Numerous searches for news and informational resources also appeared, with heavy demand for “maps”, “videos”, “news”, “pictures”, and “facts”.
Surprising topics were also present within the search query information. Unexpectedly high levels of search centered around the Iraqi Dinar, possibly performed by currency traders hoping to time a profitable investment in the troubled Iraqi currency? Searches for jobs in Iraq were also high, despite the noteworthy security concerns.
Sadly, searches relating to the ugliest portions of warfare also appeared, with thoughts of beheading, rape, torture, and exploitation on the minds of curious searchers.
Ironically, the supposed “search” for the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq also continues. Have the military strategists who concocted this war in the first place now resorted to scouring .html files?
On a lighter note, searches for a local breed of spiders were also high, with an estimated 147,460 annual searches for variations of the phrase “Iraq camel spiders”. I’d much rather look for exotic sand spiders on the internet than in person too!
Epiar Inc. is an Edmonton-based internet market research and search engine optimization company. Please contact us for more information or to commission your own research reports.
