There is no sporting event in the world that captures global attention quite like the Olympic Games does. That being said, this occasion provides a large enough sample population to broadly examine how people are searching for Olympic-related material. The findings reveal that mobile devices account for almost fifty percent of all search sources on the Internet, relating to the Games.
Search Shock
It won’t come as a surprise that social media has played a very large part in following Olympic trends, but to have almost fifty percent of all search engine queries relating to the Olympics generated from mobile devices – phones and tablets – may be a little more interesting.
The Numbers
Wireless networks are accommodating mobile devices at a rapid rate and evidence of this is exemplified in the fact that data dedicated to Olympic-related searches is almost equal to that of desktop searches. Here are a few figures that show the percentage of searches apportioned to mobile devices in various countries:
- Japan 55%
- United States 47%
- United Kingdom 46%
- Australia 45%
- Netherlands 44%
- Puerto Rico 41%
- South Africa 24%
Second Screen
The “second screen” occurrence reflects the practice of switching between watching live streaming on a mobile device to browsing the web for more information on what you’re viewing or to kill time while advertisements are in progress.
Trigger Search
In summary, here is a good illustration of the time-specific search response to one particular live event (Paul McCartney performing “Hey Jude” at the Olympics Opening Ceremony) and the sources from which the searches took place, most notably from mobile devices.
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