Africans Search for Obama

November 07, 2008

Former VP candidate Sarah Palin may be unclear on the exact geographic status of Africa (country or continent?), but a quick spin through Google Insights for Search, reveals that Africans are more interested in Barack Obama.

I've covered the last four elections, and I've never, ever seen the kind of global interest in US politics in general, or in a specific candidate, as I have this time around. That's why the results here are not surprising, but interesting none-the-less. Just look at what happens when you gauge the global search interest in "Obama" over the past seven days.

That's right -- eight out of 10 are countries on the continent of Africa. Kenya is no shocker as the leader, considering Obama's family ties to the country.

So what do these results tell us? First, they don't imply that more Kenyans are searching for Obama than Americans. They just mean that a greater percentage of Kenyans (and Ethiopians, and Ugandans, and Cameroonians) who are online and searching are looking for information on the US President-Elect. Also, this has been the case not just in the last seven days. African nations have, according to this article, led the world in the concentration of "barack obama" searches for the past year.

Well, if you're going to name your child after the man, I guess it makes sense to know a little bit about him. For their part, the Obama team seems eager to feed its online supporters. Less than 48 hours after winning the election, Obama's transition website was up and running.

Oh, and just for fun and comparison, here's the global Google Insights results for "palin."

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