Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s defection from the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) fake admission list dominated searches on the internet search engine, Google, this week.
Google’s Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Anglophone West Africa, Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, disclosed this on Thursday.
According to him, this week’s top trending search terms on Google Nigeria were dominated by both foreign and national news items.
“Abubakar, on Tuesday resigned from the ruling APC and plans to seek the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential ticket to run for President in 2019.
“In his statement of resignation, he cited maltreatment by the party and the failure of the party to live up to the expectation of Nigerian youth as one of the major reasons for his resignation.
“Interested Nigerians raced to Google search to read his full statement of resignation,” Mr Kola-Ogunlade said.
The Google manager said that the University of Ilorin came on the searchlight when a fake admission list was circulated on the social media.
“The management of UNILORIN has urged candidates seeking admission into the institution for the 2017/2018 academic session to patiently wait for the release of the authentic admission list by the Institution.
“The university in a statement on Tuesday said that its attention had been drawn to a fake admissions list currently circulating on social media, and urged students not to fall prey to admission fraudsters.
“The institution has directed students to check their Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) portal for admissions’ updates.
“Concerned students raced to Google to search for more information about the anticipated admissions list,’’ he said.
Kola-Ogunlade said that singer, Bankole Wellington, and wife, Nollywood actress, Adesua Etomi, trended when Banky W mistakenly posted a picture of his naked wife on social media.
“On November 25, R&B singer, Banky W and Nollywood actress, Etomi tied the knot in a ceremony held in Cape Town, South Africa.
“A day after, Banky W wanted to give a shout-out to his fans, by showing them their honeymoon lodge and Zebra right outside his bedroom window but, unknown to him he posted an image on social media which had his naked wife in the background.
“The image went viral before the mistake was noticed. Banky W deleting the image has not stopped fans from searching for more details, making ‘Banky W’ a top trending search term on Google,” he said.
On the international scene, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle engagement got people’s attention online.
“The Prince of Wales, Charles announced the engagement of his second son, Prince Harry to his American girlfriend, actress Meghan Markle on Monday at Kensington Palace.
“The happy couple who will tie the knot by spring next year granted their first interview as an engaged couple to the BBC, where Prince Harry described how he proposed to Meghan.
“Since the announcement, controversy has arisen about Meghan’s background, which made her name a top trending search term on Google this week,” he said.
Google Trends launched in May 2006, allows one to see how popular, search terms and its demography have been over time on Google.
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