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Through the Google lens: Search Trends Sept 18–24
September 25, 2015
Even if you weren’t trying to keep up with all your fall shows returning, this week was a busy one. Here’s a look at what captured our attention the past seven days—from the Pope to a little rat with a big dream.
Also, we’re changing up this series, so this will be our last regular Friday post for a while. We’ll be back soon in a different format. Until then, keep on searchin’ on.
Pizza rat is all of us
Let’s start with the important stuff. This week the Internet was captivated by a
YouTube video
showing a rat carrying a slice of pizza down the stairs of a New York subway station. There were more than
50K+ searches for “Pizza Rat”
on Monday, and the 14 second-video has more than 6 million views at last count. But while
#PizzaRat memes
multiplied across the web, New Yorkers had some more unsettling questions in mind, like: “How many rats are in New York?” and “What is the rat to people ratio in New York?” (Are you sure you want to know?) Whether Pizza Rat is a
hero
or a
quitter
, something about him spoke to us. Because in a way, aren’t we all just rats trying to find a slice of pizza in the subway station of life?
Hello, Pope
Francis
This week Pope Francis became the
fourth pope to visit the United States
, in a highly anticipated tour that took him from
D.C. to New York, with a Philadelphia stop
still to come. Every day of his visit has brought headlines and curious searches (
more than 500K on Tuesday
)—and he’s been busy. He met with President Obama (
and the President’s dogs
) at the White House, stopped by the Capitol to give a
joint address to Congress
(the first time a pontiff has ever done so),
canonized Junipero Serra
, visited the 9/11 Memorial, spoke at the United Nations and made statements on everything ranging from climate change to the refugee crisis.
Meanwhile, people have been asking all
sorts
of
questions
about the Pope and his visit. Perhaps the most interesting—and inspiring—searches about the Pope’s visit are those looking for information on what he has said. Notably, people wanted to learn more about Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day, whom the Pope described in his joint address to Congress as Americans who had “built a better future” through “hard work and self-sacrifice” (the other two Americans he mentioned? Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr.). In fact, searches for Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement and an advocate for social justice,
spiked 1700x
after the Pope discussed her in his speech.
It ain’t over ‘til it’s over
This week baseball fans and others said farewell to Yankees catcher
Yogi Berra
, who died at age 90. A Hall of Famer who appeared in 21 World Series as a player, coach and manager, Yogi was perhaps best known for his nonsensical, sometimes
koan-like
statements (some of which it’s disputed he actually made, but all of which you’ve probably said without even knowing their origin), and as the namesake for the
cartoon bear
. As news spread of his death, people searched for him more than 1M times,
asking
“What number was Yogi Berra?” and “How did Yogi Berra get the name Yogi?” (
It’s a good story
.)
Posted by Emily Wood, Managing Editor, who searched this week for [pontifex] and [postpositive adjective]
Supporting our young scientists through the Google Science Fair
September 21, 2015
Mariette DiChristina is the Editor in Chief and senior vice president of
Scientific American
—the first woman to hold the role in the magazine's 170-year history. She has been a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 2011 and served as president of the National Association of Science Writers in 2009 and 2010. She joins us here today to share her perspective on the Google Science Fair, which is in its fifth edition this year.
-Ed.
This marks my fifth year with the
Google Science Fair
. In October 2010, when I had my first conversations with my friends at Google about their idea to create a global online science fair that any kid 13–18 could participate in, I thought it sounded pretty cool. But I couldn’t then imagine just how inspiring and powerful such a competition would turn out to be in reality.
At the time, I hadn’t even been editor in chief of
Scientific American
for a year, but I had real ambitions to try to do something to make a difference in educating our young people about science. You see, I believe that science is the engine of human prosperity—it’s the way we grapple with some of the world’s most challenging problems, from cures for diseases to living sustainably in a finite world. So I’ve always seen the idea of fostering evidence-based thinking in our next generation of global citizens as vital.
Now, five years later and working with partners LEGO Education,
National Geographic
and Virgin Galactic, the Google Science Fair has an impressive track record of enabling our world’s young scientists to shine. Over the years, they’ve tackled serious issues, like world hunger and the energy crisis. Their projects have worked on how to diagnose and treat diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s. They’ve engineered flashlights powered by their hands and plastics made of banana peels. And to date, the fair has provided almost $1 million in scholarships, and sent four grand prize winners on trips around the world to further their scientific passions.
Tonight we added some new winners to that list as we recognized and celebrated the 2015 top 20 finalist projects and the bright young scientists behind them:
The Grand Prize went to
Olivia Hallisey
for creating a novel way to detect Ebola.
Girish Kumar
won the Google Technologist Award for helping improve learning through auto-generated study questions.
The
National Geographic
Explorer Award went to
Deepika Kurup
for her idea to use solar-powered silver to create clean drinking water.
Krtin Nithiyanadam
’s project focused on improved diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease and won him the
Scientific American
Innovator Award.
Pranav Sivakumar
's automated search for gravitationally lensed quasars earned him the Virgin Galactic Pioneer Award.
And
Anurudh Ganesan
took home The LEGO Education Builder Award for his unique twist on effectively transporting vaccines.
If you didn’t get to tune in, you can still
watch the Awards Show live stream
and check out the
complete list of impressive finalists and winners
, including our first ever Inspiring Educator,
Aydan Meydan
from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In all of these finalists and the thousands of submissions from students in 100+ countries, we see something common. These students are inventive, thoughtful, and determined to help make the world a better place. All they need is a chance and a platform to do so. And, unlike some of us adults, they are ready to try things that other people think are “impossible.” I find them inspiring.
It’s imperative for us to support and encourage our young people to explore and challenge the world around them through scientific discovery. So we’re especially glad that Ahmed Mohamed—the 14-year-old clock maker from Texas—took us up on
our invite
to attend this year’s event. Curious young scientists, inventors and builders like him should be encouraged and empowered.
The past decades have brought tremendous innovations and challenges, and none of us knows what the future of scientific discovery holds. But I can tell you one thing: it’s going to be better thanks to these kids. They will be part of building a brighter future for us all—and as they do, those of us at Scientific American, Google, LEGO Education, National Geographic and Virgin Galactic will be cheering them on.
So
start thinking of your ideas for next year
! We can’t wait to see what you’ll try next.
Posted by Mariette DiChristina, Editor in Chief of Scientific American and Chief Judge of the Google Science Fair
Through the Google lens: Search Trends Sept 11–17
September 18, 2015
Another week flown by—sometimes the pace is enough to make you need a
dislike button
. Here’s a look at the past seven days as seen through Google Search:
Tick tock
A 14-year-old teenager named
Ahmed Mohamed
found himself in the spotlight this week, with searches for his name soaring above 500K. Mohamed, who lives in Texas and is Muslim, was arrested on Monday after he brought a clock that he’d made himself to school and it was mistaken for a bomb. In the days that followed, thousands of people expressed their support for Mohamed online with the hashtag #IStandwithAhmed, and he received invitations to visit the White House, MIT, Facebook—and yes, even Google. As more and more people heard about the story, they turned to search with questions like “What did Ahmed’s clock look like?” and “What was Obama’s response to Ahmed’s clock?”
Nature’s ways
California has been battling brutal wildfires this year, as the drought has dried up fields and forests across the state. Last week’s
Butte Fire
threatened thousands of acres and burned hundreds of homes, and it seemed like as soon as it was contained the Valley Fire in Lake County was blazing. Searchers turned to the web with questions like “How does a wildfire create its own weather?” and “Why are the wildfires getting worse?” But while firefighters worked around the clock up north to stop the inferno, southern California was breaking records for rainfall. Really. Tuesday was the
second-wettest day
in L.A. in September since 1877, with 50,000+ searches for [
weather Los Angeles
] as astonished Angelenos looked to learn more about this unfamiliar wet stuff falling from the sky.
Mother Nature wasn’t through with her surprises, though. Wednesday, an 8.3 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Chile, forcing 1 million people to evacuate—and causing 2 million searches for [
Chile earthquake
]. Tsunami warnings were in effect as far away as California, Japan and New Zealand. Despite some casualties and billions of dollars’ worth of damages,
experts say
that Chile’s investments in structural reinforcements and other earthquake preparedness prevented the disaster from being much worse.
Debate club
The Republican presidential debate was the subject of
more than 5 million searches
this week as people looked for more about the candidates and issues. While Donald Trump was the most searched candidate both
overall
and in nearly every state, he had
some competition
from former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. Fiorina drew attention for her performance in the debate, in particular her
opposition to Planned Parenthood
(the subject of
more than 200K searches
this week) and her
reaction
to comments Trump had made about her in the press. Taking Trump to task for past comments was a theme on Wednesday; in fact, the
top searched moment
of the night was when
Jeb Bush
asked Trump for an apology to his wife.
Posted by Emily Wood, Managing Editor, who searched this week for [drywall anchors] and [pine state biscuits]
Matching your donation to humanitarian relief for refugees and migrants
September 15, 2015
My name is Rita Masoud and I am a refugee. I was born in war-torn Kabul, Afghanistan. When I was seven, my family and I fled to Europe with our belongings in a single suitcase, hoping for a safer and better future. Our journey involved many dark train and bus rides, as well as hunger, thirst, cold and fear. Fortunately, we received asylum in The Netherlands, where I grew up in a safe environment and was able to find my way in life. Today, I work for Google in California.
I was lucky. But as the refugee and migrant crisis has grown, many people like my family are desperate for help. Last week, Google announced a €1 million (~$1.1 million) donation to organizations who are providing front-line humanitarian relief to refugees and migrants around the world. Today, we're inviting you to
join us
. To double the impact of your contribution, we’ll match the first €5 million (~$5.5 million) in donations globally, until together we raise €10 million (~$11 million) for relief efforts.
Your donation will be distributed to four nonprofits providing aid to refugees and migrants:
Doctors Without Borders
,
International Rescue Committee
,
Save the Children
and
UN High Commissioner for Refugees
. These nonprofits are helping deliver essential assistance—including shelter, food and water, and medical care—and looking after the security and rights of people in need.
Visit
google.com/refugeerelief
to make your donation. Thank you for giving.
En route from Afghanistan, with my family and some belongings. You can read more about my journey
on my blog
.
Update September 18:
In just two and a half days, you've helped us reach our goal to raise €10 million (~$11 million). Thank you for your contributions to help refugees and migrants in need.
Posted by Rita Masoud, Product Marketing Manager, Google.org
Walk alongside the elephants of the Samburu National Reserve in Street View
September 15, 2015
Today for the first time, we’re releasing
Street View imagery of Kenya
—including the Samburu National Reserve, Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust—in partnership with
Save the Elephants
and with the support of the
Samburu County Government
. We'll let Save the Elephants' David Daballen take it from here
. -Ed.
It’s a wild life at the
Save the Elephants research camp
in Samburu, in the heart of northern Kenya’s wilderness. For the last 15 years at Save the Elephants, I’ve spent my days among the elephants, working alongside my fellow Samburu people to study and protect them. Research shows that 100,000 elephants across Africa were killed for their ivory between 2010-2012, but thanks to our work in the
Samburu National Reserve
their numbers are now slowly increasing. Today, a visit to Samburu is a chance not only to see these magnificent creatures in their natural habitat, but also discover a uniquely beautiful landscape where people’s lives are interwoven with the landscape’s wildlife. It’s my honour to invite you on a journey to my homeland with
Street View in Google Maps
.
Every time I drive into the Reserve, I can see the trust on the elephants’ faces and feel a warm welcome. When I’m out and about, I never know which of my fellow citizens I’ll bump into next. It could be some of the
600+ elephants
I can recognize—like
the Hardwood family
—frolicking together,
a group of Samburu warriors
walking along the Ewaso Nyiro River,
a pride of lions
enjoying a bit of shade, or
a leopard
crossing the path. While you make your journey through Street View, you may be surprised what awaits.
Hardwood family of elephants, Samburu National Reserve, Kenya
South of Samburu, up into the hills of Kenya, the
Lewa Wildlife Conservancy
awaits exploration. In this greener landscape, you can cross the open savannah, where animals like zebras and rhinoceroses live protected from poachers and hunters. Every day, the
Lewa radio command center
plots the movements of elephants (and other GPS-collared wildlife) onto Google Earth to help rangers determine where elephants are and when they might be in danger. If an elephant’s GPS collar sends an alert to indicate the elephant has stopped moving, a team of rangers and tracking dogs will investigate. Save the Elephants was one of the first organizations to use this technology, having collared 266 elephants across Africa since 1998.
Elephants and zebras graze in the open plains of the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy
Visiting the
David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
, you can see the devastating effect of poaching and other causes of elephant deaths in Kenya. Founded in 1977, the Trust provides lifesaving assistance to wild animals in need, including orphaned elephants and rhinos. At their Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi, elephant caretakers stand in for an elephant’s lost family, providing 24/7 care and specially formulated milk. As the orphans grow, they are gradually reintegrated back into the wild, where they are protected by the charity’s Anti-Poaching and Aerial Surveillance Teams. To date, the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust has hand-raised more than 180 orphaned infant elephants, including little
Sokotei
, who I helped to rescue in Samburu after his mother died of natural causes when he was six months old. He’s just one elephant amid thousands that have been lost across the continent, but when you're up against a challenge of this scale, every elephant counts.
Orphaned elephants play in the mud at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi, Kenya
I hope this glimpse into life in Samburu has inspired you to learn more about elephants’ plight and how you can help. Samburu is my home and is full of life. To ensure it remains that way, please consider supporting the research of
Save the Elephants
, making a donation to the anti-poaching efforts of
Lewa Wildlife Conservancy
, or fostering an orphaned elephant at the
David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
. After exploring in Street View, come and see us here in Kenya in person—we’d love to have you!
Posted by David Daballen, Head of Field Operations at Save the Elephants
Through the Google lens: Search Trends Sept 4–11
September 11, 2015
Alongside star athletes, royals and vice presidents, an unpronounceable village in Wales had its moment in the search spotlight this week. Read on for seven days of search trends.
That interview
Stephen Colbert took to the air as the new host of CBS’ The Late Show Tuesday, with an impressive
6.6 million viewers
and
half a million Google searches
for the premiere, and a
search spike
every night since. The week’s star-studded line-up included actors George Clooney and Scarlett Johanssen, but by Friday morning it was guest Vice President Joe Biden who was
driving the search buzz
for the frank and emotional conversation he had with Colbert about the family tragedies both have suffered. The interview wasn’t all serious—the VP joked about the host’s
2008 run for the presidency
, and proposed joining forces for 2016. A Colbert-Biden ticket would be tough to beat (in searches, at least).
Venus vs. Serena (vs. Roberta)
Game on. As Venus and Serena Williams faced each other this week in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open, the sisters generated a combined
one+ million searches
from people following the action online. Serena ultimately beat out older sister Venus both on the court and on Google—
topping Venus Tuesday
in search volume. Heading into the weekend, all eyes continued to be on Serena and her bid for the first tennis Grand Slam win since Steffi Graf’s in 1988. But it wasn’t to be. As Serena suffered a shocking semifinal upset by Roberta Vinci of Italy this afternoon, people from Jamaica to Romania to Zimbabwe
followed the action
on Google.
Congrats, Ma’am
This week,
Queen Elizabeth II
became Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, surpassing the record set by great-great-grandmum Queen Victoria. (According to the
BBC
, this happened at 23,226 days, 16 hours and approximately 30 minutes … but who’s counting?) This milestone was popular across the pond—the U.S. was the top country outside the Commonwealth searching for information about Her Royal Highness. But her loyal subjects in the U.K. also had questions. Besides some basics like the Queen’s age and her cash flow, one question Brits
repeatedly searched on Google
this week was: Why does the Queen celebrate two birthdays? The lengthy
official answer
on the royal website references the weather, King Edward VII, and horses. An alternative answer? Because she can.
It’s Welsh, and it starts with an L (two, actually)
At 58 letters, the Welsh village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch has the longest and most notoriously difficult-to-say place name in the United Kingdom. And after Welsh weatherman Liam Dutton nailed its pronunciation live on air Wednesday (and subsequently on YouTube), people around the world turned to Google with a collective “Whoa!” Along with wanting to know if this is a real place (yes, indeed), and how it got its name (unconfirmed, but one YouTube commenter suggests it was named by a cat taking a walk on a keyboard), the top search on Google was, of course, how to pronounce it. With 7 million views and counting, here’s
weatherman Dutton with the answer
. Show-off.
Posted by Abbi Tatton, who searched this week for [the war of 1812]
What makes us Human?
September 11, 2015
Over the past three years, filmmaker and artist Yann Arthus-Bertrand travelled to 60 countries, interviewing more than 2,000 people in dozens of languages, in an attempt to answer the question: What is it that makes us human? The result is
HUMAN
, a documentary film that weaves together a rich collection of stories from freedom fighters in Ukraine, farmers in Mali, death row inmates in the United States, and more—on topics that unite us all: love, justice, family, and the future of our planet.
Now we’re partnering with Arthus-Bertrand, the Goodplanet Foundation and Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, to bring HUMAN to you on Google Play, YouTube and the Google Cultural Institute so we can share this project with the widest audience throughout the world.
Watch an extended version of the film on YouTube and Google Play
We’re making HUMAN available on YouTube starting September 12, and later on Google Play. This “director’s cut”of three 90-minute films will be available in Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. On YouTube, you can also watch extra footage including interviews with figures like United Nations Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon, animal rights activist Jane Goodall and actress Cameron Diaz, all of whom participated in the film.
Explore HUMAN with the Google Cultural Institute
Over at the
Google Cultural Institute
, you can learn about the origin of the film and listen to anecdotes from the people who brought it to life. You can also meet the characters in and around the movie in their daily lives, with six exhibits of behind the scenes photos and videos that let you explore how HUMAN was made over three years. This includes a collection highlighting how the director shot the aerial views that are a signature of Arthus-Bertrand’s filmmaking.
Exhibitions on Google the Cultural Institute platform
Learn more about this project at
g.co/humanthemovie
or on the
HUMAN Behind The Scenes mobile app
, available on Google Play. With HUMAN, we want to help citizens around the world connect together. So we’d like to hear your answer to the question of what makes us human. Add your voice to the conversation with #WhatMakesUsHUMAN.
Posted by Raphael Goumain, Head of Consumer Marketing, France
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