comScore: Search Behavior Is A Sign Of The Times

Feb 24, 2009 at 2:42pm ET by Matt McGee

You can watch the TV news, read a newspaper, or maybe drive down your street to see signs of the current financial struggles that many Americans are facing. You can also take a look at what Americans are searching for online. That’s what comScore has done, and today’s announcement confirms that we are what we search for.

Searches for terms related to the economic struggles rose dramatically during 2008, according to the comScore report.

comscore chart

As the chart shows, searches for job-related terms like “unemployment benefits” and “unemployment” were both up more than 200% in 2008. Housing-related terms like “mortgage” and “foreclosure” saw significant increases in search activity, as did personal finance terms like “bankruptcy” and “coupons.”

It’s a sad reflection of the times, and one that fits last month’s comScore news that job search was the fastest growing search category in 2008.

Matt McGee is the Search Engine Land Assignment Editor, and offers search marketing consulting and training to businesses of all sizes. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and HyperlocalBlogger.com.

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