Lindsay and LeBron dominate news searches

According to Pew Research Center's latest weekly News Interest Index, interest in the Gulf oil leak has started to see a fall in the percentage of the public following the story closely.


An analysis of news searches across the last four months reveals a very similar pattern:


However, Pew's findings for the most popular news items reveals a marked difference to the most searched for stories.


In relation to its sampling methods, Pew states that "in addition to sampling error, one should bear in mind that question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of opinion polls".

However, a quick look at the most searched for news stories, suggests respondents may in fact be attempting to appear somewhat more highbrow when speaking to Pew researchers.


In contrast to the oil leak and the immigration law debate, LeBron James move to the Miami Heat and Lindsay Lohan's 90-day jail sentence dominate online news interest.

According to Pew, large majorities actually said that news organizations gave too much coverage last week to Lohan’s legal woes (71%) and James’s announcement (61%).

With interest in Spain winning the World Cup third in online news searches, it seems that America is not quite ready to admit to an interest in either soccer or celebrity.

Adidas gains search boost from World Cup sponsorship

According to research from NM Incite, a Nielsen and McKinsey joint venture showed, in the build-up to the World Cup Nike claimed 30.2% of World Cup-related online buzz, twice as much as its rival and official sponsor, Adidas.

However, an analysis of the share of global search behaviour since 2004 reveals that of Adidas's top 10 most successful weeks, five occured during the 2006 World Cup in Germany and five were during this year's tournament in South Africa.

On average, Adidas saw a 6 percentage point weekly lift during the two World Cups suggesting that the sponsorship deal was paying dividends.

Video Game Searches Match Sales

According to industry tracker NPD, sales of video game software and equipment in the United States fell 5 percent in May.

An analysis of product searches within the Video & Games category on Google Insights for Search also reveals a corresponding 5 percent decline in May.

In contrast product searches rose in May 2008 and stayed fairly flat in May 2009, suggesting this is not a seasonal trend.

Red Dead Redemption, the top game in May 2010 with 1.5 million units sold, was also the fastest rising search - up 1,150% month-on-month.

Nintendo Co Ltd's Wii was the top-selling home console in May, followed by Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Within product searches however, the Xbox was marginally ahead of the Wii, with the PS3 third.