Internet Behavior Signals Election Fatigue

Internet Behavior Signals Election Fatigue

via Hitwise Intelligence - Heather Hopkins - US de Heather Hopkins em 09/04/08

Perhaps having recognized the trend, I should have steered clear of the subject, but I couldn't resist. Internet usage data suggests that American's are suffering election and politics fatigue. Surprised? Probably not. A quote published in this week's Economist (subscription required): "To be honest, I haven't been following [the Democratic campaign] any more. I lost my interest." Quoting 50 Cent (the rapper) who originally supported Hillary Clinton, switched to Barack Obama and now he's not sure.

Here's a chart of the weekly share of US Internet searches for "barack obama" and "hillary clinton":

Internet searches for the Democratic candidates' names have dropped to the lowest point since the week ending December 29th for "barack obama" and the week ending January 5th for "hillary clinton". (The Iowa caucus took place on January 3rd). It's not just the Dems that are losing momentum - visits to the Politics category overall follow the same pattern as do searches for "john mccain".

If you count the Iowa caucus as the starting point, it would appear that interest grew from that point to just past Super Tuesday.

Perhaps it's not just to protracted race but the constant coverage in the media that is causing election fatigue. With the constant tit for tat on the news, who needs to search for either candidate? In any case, this is a great example of how search data can be a good indicator of the desire for more information about a person, product or service.