The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Interest in Advani up on Net in run-up to polls

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Friday, May 15, 2009
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Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Interest in Advani up on Net in run-up to polls

Sruthi Krishnan

CHENNAI: Online interest in BJP leader L.K. Advani reached its highest point in the last 12 months when a slipper was thrown at him. The data on Google Trends, an application that shows how often a search term has been sought for on Google over time, also shows that the interest in Mr. Advani’s name rose steadily as the General Elections approached.

Contrary to what many consider as just another activity on the Internet, searching is the “backbone of cyberspace,” says Nishant Shah, Director (Research), Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore. The search for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh shows a peak in July 2008 in the last 12 months, corresponding to the UPA Government winning the trust vote. That the interest in searching for public personalities closely mirrors news interest in the outside world is undeniable, says Mr. Shah. In the last 12 months, the political event that fired up Google in India was the launch of Praja Rajyam, coinciding with a spike in the search for actor Chiranjeevi’s name. This spike was the highest among the search history in the last 12 months of the ten most searched politicians in India on Google – a list released by Google recently.

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