This week’s trends—with data from Google News Lab–have something for everyone: science experts, history buffs, baseball fans, music aficionados and dog lovers.
Mind-expanding, relatively speaking
Stephen Hawking’s doctoral thesis made news this week (and was searched 1,000 percent more than “Stephen Hawking IQ”) when the Cambridge Library made PDF files of the thesis available for download from its website. The document crashed the university’s open-access repository and led to top searches like, “How many pages is Stephen Hawking’s thesis paper?” “What is in Stephen Hawking’s thesis?” and “How to get a copy of Stephen Hawking’s PhD thesis.”
That’s a big file cabinet
American history buffs and conspiracy theorists alike waited in eager anticipation for yesterday’s release of the JFK Files, a set of more than 2,800 government files about the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy. People wanted to know where the files are, what time they were being released, and where to download them—and “JFK Files” were searched nearly 700 percent more than “JFK assassination.”
Next in the lineup, the World Series
The Los Angeles Dodgers hosted the Houston Astros in the first two games of the World Series this week. The series may be tied, but the Astros were searched 121 percent more than the Dodgers (the most search interest in the Dodgers comes from the West Coast, where as the Astros have the Midwest and East Coast). Here are the top questions that fans threw out there: “Who won game 2 of the World Series?” “How many World Series have the Dodgers won?” and “When was the last time the Astros won the World Series?”
More like Idita-roid
This week, a doping scandal was uncovered at the Iditarod, the world’s most famous dog race which takes place in Alaska. Several dogs tested positive for Tramadol, an opioid pain reliever. In light of the news, people searched to find more about the race itself: “When was the first Iditarod?” “How many dogs run in the Iditarod?” and “Who won the 2017 Iditarod race?” For those looking for non-doping dogs on the internet, the most-searched breeds this week were pit bull, German shepherd, and golden retriever.
Feeling blue, singing the blues
New Orleans jazz musician Fats Domino died earlier this week at the age of 89. Search interest in the musical legend increased nearly 32,000 percent on the day of his death, with top searches like, “How old was Fats Domino?” “How did Fats Domino die?” and “Which songs did Fats Domino sing?” The most searched Fats Domino songs over the past week were “Blueberry Hill,” “Ain’t that a Shame,” and “Blue Monday.”
