Global Online Google Search Trends - Visa, Mastercard and American Express

Below is an infographic depicting the search trends for Visa, MasterCard and American Express from 2007-2011 for 33 countries. I have used Google Trends to collect the for data last 5 years. You can sort the data by Country or by Year. The key words used in the analysis are 'visa' 'mastercard' and 'amercian express' in the Financial Services Category.

According to Google - The data reflects how many searches have been done for a particular term, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. They don't represent absolute search volume numbers, because the data is normalized and presented on a scale from 0-100.

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Following is the list of countries covered in the above analysis - Australia Austria Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Netherlands Poland Russian Federation Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom United States Argentina Belgium Indonesia Denmark Egypt Hong Kong United Arab Emirates South Africa Ireland Israel Singapore Saudi Arabia Turkey New Zealand Portugal

Google Search Index v/s Dubai's House Price Index

Below is a comparison of how the Google Search Index varies when the housing bubble burst in Dubai in 2009. From the charts you may notice that a peak in the search of 'Home Financing' category happened few quarters before the bubble burst in UAE. This is very interesting and probably tells a lot about the fact that sentiment plays a very important role in the market movements. Surprisingly, the search for housing information drops before the bubble bursts and stays lower while the prices are wiped off and most of the people lose their homes.

However, at a macro level the trends match and show that online sentiments do determine the demand and supply of a commodity.

There is a surge in the search for property on Google in 2010, which matches with the house price index trend.

Click here to read Google Trends 2011 for Banks in UAE

Image take from - http://www.globalpropertyguide.com

What did Middle East Search in 2011 on Google - Trends Part 2

This series covers Google Trends 2011 for UAE,  Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Oman and Lebanon.

Google has once again released its annual Zeitgeist report, showing the fastest rising searches for countries all over the world. Saudi Arabia and Egypt were covered as part of the MENA region. I have used Google Trends to do the analysis of other countries in the Middle East.

Part 1 covers - UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman.

Part 2 cover Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan

Jordan 

Youtube and Facebook take the lead in the searches. Saraya a popular news website is also among the top 10 searches. 

Gaddafi is a most sought after person on Google Jordan. 4Share a file sharing site is a popular in Jordan.

Interestingly Chrome browser is a among the top 10 rising keyword searches.

Egypt

Egypt has the highest number of Internet Users in the MENA region (20,136,000 as of 30 June 2011, according to internetworldstats.com). 

With all the political action happening in Egypt, no doubt ‘youm7’; a news website is among the list of popular searches.  Terms like ‘

Tahrir Square

’ and ‘Revolution of 25 January’ are among the top rising searches in 2011. Youtube and Facebook remain in the top 10 searched keywords.

Hossini Mubarak remains the most searched person on Google followed by Wael Ghonim one of the key activist in the Egyptian revolution.

Lebanon 

The country has internet usage penetration of 29%. Most of the searched terms are in English language. ‘Twitter’ is also appearing among the top 10 searched words. 

Applications like ‘whtsapp’ and ‘ebuddy’ are popular searches. 

Lots of users are taking interest in searching for the keyword ‘Syria’, assuming out of interest in the current political situation.

Click here to read Part 1 of this series

Click here to read about Middle East Google Trends for 2010

What did Middle East Search in 2011 on Google - Trends Part 1

This series covers Google Trends 2011 for UAE,  Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Oman and Lebanon.

Google has once again released its annual Zeitgeist report, showing the fastest rising searches for countries all over the world. Saudi Arabia and Egypt were covered as part of the MENA region. I have used Google Trends to do the analysis of other countries in the Middle East. 

Part 1 covers - UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman. 

Part 2 covers - Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan 

UAE 

The country has the highest Internet Penetration rate of 69 % (via - according to internetworldstats.com) in Middle East. Most of the search terms are in English. After ‘Dubai’, ‘Facebook’ remains the most search term. In the rising searches, ‘Al Jazeera’ and ‘Dubizzle’ are amongst the top 5 searched terms.

Cricket and related websites like ‘cricinfo’ are amongst the top emerging searches, giving credit to the world cup held this year.  

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia – The country with the highest number of Internet Users (11,400,000 as of 30 June 2011 according to internetworldstats.com) in Middle East region. Most of the searched terms are in Arabic, which shows popularity of the language in the online world. ‘Facebook’ and ‘Youtube’ remain popular searches amongst the internet users. Photos and Game are some of the most searched categories in Saudi Arabia. Spongebob and Twitter are also popular keywords among the Saudi users. With the recent investment of $300 million by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in Twitter, the website’s popularity will surge in the country. 

Oman

Oman – The country has an internet penetration rate of 48.4%. Facebook and Youtube are popular searches in the country. Al Sablah seems to be popular community forum in Oman, which appear in the existing and rising search trends. Hotmail is also among the rising searches in the country. Elakiri Community is another forum listed in the rising searches. 

Click here to view Google Trends for 2010.