Google, Yahoo Agree: Democrats Searched More Than Republicans During Political Conventions
The dust has settled on both the Republican and Democratic national conventions and, while we don’t know who’ll ultimately get the most votes, it’s clear that Democrats won the day where search activity is concerned. Both Google and Yahoo have analyzed their users’ searches during the two conventions, and both show that search activity spiked […]
The dust has settled on both the Republican and Democratic national conventions and, while we don’t know who’ll ultimately get the most votes, it’s clear that Democrats won the day where search activity is concerned.
Both Google and Yahoo have analyzed their users’ searches during the two conventions, and both show that search activity spiked significantly more during last week’s Democratic National Convention (DNC).
Google Search Activity & Political Conventions
On its Google Plus page late Friday, Google’s elections team shared a chart showing that three of the top four most-searched speakers during both conventions were Democrats: President Obama, his wife Michelle and former President Bill Clinton. Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney was the only Republican speaker in the top four.
Google also shared a separate image showing search activity during President Obama’s speech Thursday night — when activity spiked after his speech ended.
We already reported about First Lady Michelle Obama’s speech getting more search interest than Ann Romney, the wife of Republican candidate Mitt Romney.
Yahoo Search Activity & Political Conventions
Meanwhile, Yahoo has shared data with Search Engine Land that mirrors the trends shown above: Democratic search activity far surpassed Republican search activity.
This first chart shows general DNC- and RNC-related search trends, with the most search activity happening during the three nights of the Democratic convention.
When it comes to searches for specific convention speeches, the same trend shows up: the three main speeches on each night of the Democratic convention saw more search activity than any Republican speech. And the overall winner in speech-related searches? Former president Bill Clinton.
In what may be a bad sign for the Romney-Ryan ticket, it was actor Clint Eastwood’s speech that drew the most search interest during the RNC — not either of the candidates’ speeches.
Yahoo also shared with us some specifics about what keywords their users typed when looking for political information during the conventions. Here are the top five queries related to the words “romney” and “obama.”
Top Romney Searches on Yahoo!
- Mitt Romney
- Ann Romney
- Mitt Romney Speech
- George Romney
- Romney Ryan 2012
Top Obama Searches on Yahoo!
- Michelle Obama Dress
- Obama
- Barack Obama
- Michell Obama DNC Seech [sic]
- Obama Speech
Twitter Activity & Political Conventions
As with search activity, Twitter activity peaked more during the Democratic convention. Twitter says there were about 9.5 million tweets about the DNC, compared to about four million about the Republican convention. And President Obama’s speech set a new record for political moments on Twitter with 52,756 tweets per minute (TPM).
We obviously won’t know until November if any of this translates into votes, but the search and social interest certainly looks promising for Democratic candidates.
Note: We also invited Bing last week to share data from its political-related search activity during both conventions, but we received no information in time for publishing.
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
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