Palin received more online searches than Obama

07/11/2008

Those involved in search marketing could be interested to learn that recent research showed Sarah Palin received more searches than Barack Obama in the run-up to the US presidential election.

According to figures collated by Hitwise, in September, the number of searches by UK residents for John McCain's running mate spiked, with three times as many people looking for information on her.

Among the popular search terms were "sarah palin hot", "sarah palin sexy", both of which appeared in the top ten.

Her appearances on popular US television show Saturday Night Live also received a great deal of interest.

A significant portion of the interest in the next president of the US was in his religious background, with popular searches including "barack obama biography" and "barack obama muslim".

Searches related to McCain were more traditional, with "john mccain wiki" and "john mccain biography" both making appearances, although "john mccain vampire" also made an appearance in reference to a famous Photoshopped image of the Republican candidate.

According to Google Insights, there were more searches for Obama in African nations than in the US with the top eight countries searching for him hailing from the continent.