SA’s top Google searches in 2013

Former South African president Nelson Mandela, who passed away earlier this month, is the top trending South African search term on Google in 2013, the search engine giant announced on Tuesday as part of its annual Zeitgeist rankings.

The court appearance of sportsman Oscar Pistorius and the death of SABC anchor Vuyo Mbuli also feature prominently in this year’s lists on top trending searches by South African Google users.

Melissa Bachman raised many eyebrows after her South African lion hunting controversy, resulting in a roar of heated social media debates around the topic — she comes in fourth to Margaret Thatcher, Kim Kardashian’s baby (named North West) and South African model Reeva Steenkamp.

This year’s Zeitgeist has more than a thousand top 10 lists across categories like trending people, most searched events and top trending searches from 72 countries, including South Africa.

More data and analysis can be found at google.com/zeitgeist.

The company created the lists and data visualisations using a combination of tools that provide insight into global, regional, past and present search trends in aggregate, it explains.

“Much of the data was informed by Google Trends, a publicly available tool that displays relative search volume across geographies, time periods and queries. We also used internal tools that allow us to do some more complex analysis, such as combining country data from across the European Union.”

Google has created an interactive 3D global map, available through the Zeitgeist website, showcasing the top search trends of 2013 by day in cities around the world. Users can spin the globe, select a city and explore the topics that brought people to search on any day of the year.

Below are Google’s top 10 trending search lists of 2013, as searched for by South Africans.

Top trending South African searches

1. Nelson Mandela
2. Oscar Pistorius
3. Paul Walker
4. DefenceX
5. Vuyo Mbuli
6. OLX
7. Standard Bank internet
8. BBM for Android
9. Reeva Steenkamp
10. Royal baby

Top trending women

1. Reeva Steenkamp
2. Kim Kardashian baby
3. Margaret Thatcher
4. Melissa Bachman
5. Savita Mbuli
6. Amanda Bynes
7. Dakota Johnson
8. Nigella Lawson
9. Celine Dion
10. Anene Booysen

Top trending men

1. Nelson Mandela
2. Oscar Pistorius
3. Paul Walker
4. Vuyo Mbuli
5. Cory Monteith
6. Baby Jake Matlala
7. Burry Stander
8. Lance Armstrong
9. Baba Jukwa
10. Charlie Hunnam

South Africa trending: politicians

1. Mamphela Ramphele
2. Mmusi Maimane
3. Lindiwe Mazibuko
4. Patricia De Lille
5. Trevor Manuel
6. Gwede Mantashe
7. Blade Nzimande
8. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
9. Cyril Ramaphosa
10. Helen Zille

South Africa most searched: politicians

1. Jacob Zuma
2. Julius Malema
3. Thabo Mbeki
4. Lindiwe Mazibuko
5. Mamphela Ramphele
6. Helen Zille
7. Cyril Ramaphosa
8. Blade Nzimande
9. Gwede Mantashe
10. Trevor Manuel

South Africa trending: TV series

1. Idols SA
2. Masterchef South Africa
3. Doctor Who
4. Isibaya
5. Arrow
6. Ray Donovan
7. BBA The Chase
8. The Originals
9. American Idols 2013
10. Revenge Season 3

South Africa most searched: TV series

1. Suits
2. Vampire Diaries
3. Game of Thrones
4. Generations
5. Revenge
6. Revolution
7. Glee
8. Masterchef Australia
9. Supernatural
10. Breaking Bad

South Africa trending: technology

1. BBM for Android
2. WeChat
3. Samsung Galaxy S4
4. BlackBerry 10
5. iOS 7
6. Bitstrips
7. iPhone 5s
8. Samsung Galaxy S3
9. Xbox One
10. Fifa 14

South Africa trending: gaming

1. Fifa14
2. Atari Breakout
3. GTA V
4. Kings of Chaos
5. SimCity

South Africa trending: online shopping

1. OLX
2. Zando
3. Spree
4. Computicket South Africa
5. Style 36

South Africa trending: banking and finance

1. Standard Bank
2. Absa
3. Nedbank
4. Wonga
5. Capitec

South Africa trending: media

1. Power FM
2. eNCA
3. Maroela Media
4. ANN7
5. News24 Online

Global trending searches of 2013

1. Nelson Mandela
2. Paul Walker
3. iPhone 5s
4. Cory Monteith
5. Harlem Shake
6. Boston Marathon
7. Royal baby
8. Samsung Galaxy S4
9. PlayStation 4
10. North Korea