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google trends
Googling the general election: Sinn Féin is the most searched for political party
Google Trends has released an analysis of the questions people have been typing into Google about the general election.
SINN FÉIN HAS been the top searched political party in the past two weeks, with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil interchanging second and third place since 20 January.
A Google Trends analysis shows that Aontú is in fourth place as it stands, with People-Before-Profit in fifth place in terms of party search results.
The search engine’s analysis looked at what were the most asked questions about political parties, the most searched party leaders, and the areas that searched issues related to the general election the most.
You can view the interactive graphs in more detail here.
Maynooth, Co Kildare is the top location searching for the Irish election – the rest of the top five is Bray in Co Wicklow, Letterkenny in Co Donegal, Malahide in Co Dublin and Galway.
The top five questions that were searched about the party leaders were:
- How tall is Brendan Howlin?
- What age is Mary Lou McDonald?
- Where is Mary Lou McDonald from?
- What age is Michael Martin?
- Is Leo Varadkar married?
The top five question asked about all political parties were in and around the same theme: asking about each party’s origin and history; whether a party is left or right wing; about who the leader of each party is; and how many seats the party holds.
The most searched political issues in the past two weeks has fluctuated: starting on 20 January with schools, hospitals and crime as the top three spots respectively, and moving to schools, hospitals and Brexit this weekend.
