10 Nerdy Facts about Google Search #SearchIs20

Google Search was 20 years old on September 4, 2018.

In this article, we outline 10 facts about Google Search, their product improvements and the 10 most searched people in Nigeria in the past decade.

Ten quick facts about Google Search

Here are 10 quick facts about Google Search:

1. In 1998, Google was processing only 10,000 queries per day. Twenty years later and they are processing 3.5 billion queries per day.
2. Every day, new searches make up for 15% of the total number of searches.
3. Countries like Nigeria contributed to one-third of the searches processed in 2017
4. Search is available on 192 international domains (such as .co.jp for Japan) which is about 98% of all the countries in the world.
5. When Google first started, it took them about a month to roll out a new index. Today, Google does that within seconds or minutes of publishing to the internet.
6. So far, Google has indexed over 130 trillion web addresses
7. More than 50% of the trillions of searches on Google happen from mobile devices
8. India is the number two country for mobile search queries (behind the US)
9. Google built a Knowledge Graph which maps out how more than 1 billion things in the real world are connected and offers 70 billion facts about them in 46 languages
10. More than 1,000 person-years have gone into developing the Google search algorithm

“Far from simply being a way to find information, it has become a crucial social and economic tool. This is especially true in Africa, where it has proven invaluable in helping people find jobs, start businesses, and even save money”
—Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor, Google Nigeria Country Director

Google Search product improvements in Nigeria

In Nigeria, Google has made progress in providing the best possible search experience. The latest efforts to do so include:

• New football search experience: Google has partnered with several football associations (local and international) like the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) to present footballing information like match fixtures in a clean and easy to digest way. They did the same for the just concluded world cup.

• Text-to-speech with word highlighting in Google Go: a new audio-visual feature on Google Go to help users listen and better understand written online content

• Job Search Experience expansion: expansion of our Job Search experience feature to 20 countries in Africa, in English, Portuguese and French

• Recipe Search: a new search experience to explore recipe options for popular meals around the web

• Health Symptom Search: a new experience to explore health conditions related to symptoms

Top 10 most searched people in Nigeria since 2008

It is interesting to note that the search interest of people in the country has fairly remained the same over the past 10 years. Here is a look at the top 10 most searched people in Nigeria

1. Linda Ikeji

2. Wizkid

3. Olamide

4. Muhammadu Buhari

5. Davido

6. Cristiano Ronaldo

7. Lionel Messi

8. Rihanna

9. Nicki Minaj

10. Phyno

“Looking forward, there’s little doubt that the evolution of Search over the next 20 years will be as dramatic as the past 20”, says Ehimuan-Chiazor. “And, with an online population of 103 million, there’s every chance that Nigeria will be at the forefront of that evolution”.