How does a Statement Reflect on Google Searches?
In my article today, I prepared a study that shows ‘How a statement or a word made on television channels or social media platforms, creates a perception in society and How these statements are reflected in Google search results’.
During these days when the known agenda was Coronavirus, I chose three keywords in Google Trends since December 2019, when Coronovirus began to spread all over the world, and prepared a study to see the relationship between these words and in which countries. The first word I chose was ‘Hydrocyclochloroquine’. The reason I chose this word was the statement by President of the United States Donald Trump on March 21. In the statement, Trump stated that the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is working non-stop for vaccination and medicine and said, “It can be groundbreaking.”
After this statement, I searched the news of ‘Hydrocyclochloroquine’ from the news sources. I saw Reuters reporting on the subject.
I also searched for the word ‘Hydroxychloroquine’ on Google Trends, which is a Google Service and shows search trends of words by categories, in order to see ‘How people react to this statement and the actions they take?’. I saw that the search peaked after March. To see the dates and number of searches by country more clearly, I clicked the download symbol in the upper right of the two data below and downloaded the data of the images in CSV format.
Then, I went to Infogram Website, which is a data visualization platform with the data I received from the file in CSV format, and prepared the following two line graphs for better interpretation of my data. The search for ‘Hydroxychloroquine’ is growing rapidly in March after Trump’s statement. Similarly, when we look at the trend of this word by region, we see that the most search is in the USA.
When I looked at which searches were searched the most with these words from Google Trends, I saw that the words “immunity”, “vitamin c” and “redoxon” were also searched. Then I downloaded the data of the word “immunity” to my computer in CSV format and prepared the following line graphics on the infogram website.
After Trump’s statement, I saw that the frequency of searching for the word ‘Immunity’ increased following the statements made by medical doctors, ‘The strength of immunity reduces the risk of developing coronavirus.’ When I look at the top ten countries in which this word is searched, we can easily see that there are undeveloped countries such as Zambia, Ethiopia, Uganda, where health and medicine services are low and it is difficult to reach clean water. In parallel with these dates when the search for the word ‘Immunity’ has increased, we can see that the news on ‘Immunity’ has been made on the news sites since March.
With experts explaining that a strong immunity will always be gained by taking vitamin C, we can reach the information that the number of searches of multivitamin called ‘Redoxon’, which also contains vitamin C, peaked on other peak dates. When we look at the frequency of searches based on countries, we can see that the drug ‘Redoxon’ is also made in countries with low immunity.
As we have seen in the above information, the statements of the statesmen or scientists who direct the world and create a direct perception on the society. People rely on these explanations and refer to these explanations to get information from search engines for instance Google, take actions and shape their lives.
I hope you enjoyed reading it.
Thank you.
