Jobs, education and New Year top Google searches in January

South African internet users in January were more interested in finding out about last year’s Matric results than SA’s latest overseas cricket tournament, reveals Google Zeitgeist — a tool that provides insight into search trends.

“Matric results 2010” tops the list of fastest rising searches in SA over the last 30 days, while ‘cricket sa’ and ‘cricket’ claim third and fourth position respectively.

Education seems to be a focus for the new year, with UJ (University of Johannesburg) coming in sixth and Unisa featuring at number 8. These results are indicative of the recent registration rush that saw students causing major traffic congestion at UJ’s Kingsway campus. ‘Career junction’ achieves seventh place on the list and ‘jobmail’ takes the tenth spot, suggesting that South Africans are flocking online looking for a new start in 2011.

Google Images

Image searches for January reflect a New Year’s theme across the first four slots, followed by ‘cakes’, ‘Lady Gaga’ and ‘music’. Interestingly, South Africans have also been searching for pictures of the earth, while the country’s brides-to-be seem to be eager to look at wedding gown options on the web.