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The Royal Wedding & What's Hot In Searches On Google
The Royal Wedding of Prince William & Kate Middleton is about two weeks away, and interest continues to rise — including on Google. Below, a look at some wedding-related search activity. Wedding Terms Spiking On Google Google gave CNN Money a list of some top-rising terms that it deemed related to the wedding. Here's a […]
Danny Sullivan on April 19, 2011 at 1:59 pm
The Royal Wedding of Prince William & Kate Middleton is about two weeks away, and interest continues to rise — including on Google. Below, a look at some wedding-related search activity.
Wedding Terms Spiking On Google
Google gave CNN Money a list of some top-rising terms that it deemed related to the wedding. Here's a sample:
fascinator (a style of hat that Kate — may I call one Kate? — likes)
fruitcake (you have them at a British wedding. I know this first-hand. Searches up 25% in the last month)
wedding tiara (up 70% since last year)
carriages (up 70% from apparently last year)
pimms, crumpets & rashers (Pimm's is a particular British drink which is nice if served right; crumpets are what Thomas' English Muffins should be but aren't — and they're great. Rashers are bacon, but good bacon of the type that if Americans ever got, they'd reject the so-called "bacon" served in the US)
flights to london & london travel (up 10% since an unstated time)
royal honeymoon (up 50% in the last two weeks)
There are some additional terms. Originally, I'd listed them all. But CNN Money requested that we not list all of them, so I've dropped a few, even though I don't have to.
Over at CNN Money, you can get the full list, assuming you don't mind clicking through 12 entirely separate pages the site thoughtfully subdivided it into.
Royal Wedding Popular In? Britain!
I also decided to plug a few things into Google Trends myself, where you can see how searches are popular over time.
Below is a look at royal wedding for the past year. You can see there's been a large spike, and by far, interest is strongest in the United Kingdom.
After that, it's nearby Ireland that shows interest, then three Commonwealth nations: New Zealand, Canada and Australia. This is, after all, their monarchy too. The US comes sixth on the interest list.
Fruitcake Versus Fascinator
I was curious about what was more popular: the Fascinator hat or various wedding-related foods, fruitcake, pimms, crumpets and rashers. So, I did a comparison chart:
Some oddities emerged. Pimms was bigger way back in July, for example. Using my vast knowledge of all things Britain (I lived there for 12 years), the reason is simple. Wimbledon. You drink Pimm's in vast quantities around Wimbledon time.
Why's fruitcake spiking in December? It's a popular Christmas dish in Britain.
Kate Versus Wills
Finally, who is the most popular of the pair, Kate or William? Let's do a comparison of those names:
Now, this is a far from perfect chart. All searches for "Kate" aren't about Kate Middleton — whose formal first name is Catherine. Similarly, all searches for "William" aren't for Prince William.
More Wedding Fun & Info
Still, it is interesting to see the rise in Kate searches compared to William searches since the wedding was announced — that big spike marked "B" on the chart.
For a preview of the big day, I recommend watching T-Mobile's version of the dance-based entrance that's planned. The couple is getting updated for the new century, it seems:
You can also learn more on the official Royal Wedding web site, where our opening picture comes from.
Danny Sullivan was a journalist and analyst who covered the digital and search marketing space from 1996 through 2017. He was also a cofounder of Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, MarTech Today and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo and MarTech events. He retired from journalism and Third Door Media in June 2017. You can learn more about him on his personal site & blog He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.