Yahoo! reports surge in quake searches

MANILA, Philippines - As Japan grapples from the aftermath of one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded, people all over the world resorted to prayers while seeking more information on the disaster.

In an attempt to find out the top concerns of online users during the catastrophe, Yahoo! meticulously aggregated searches from all over the Asia-Pacific (including Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India and Southeast Asia) to reveal detailed information on the most searched keywords — earthquake and tsunami.

Yahoo! Search Trends witnessed a sharp spike in a short period of time relating to news and information on the Japan earthquake and tsunami. 

In Taiwan, earthquake and tsunami-related search queries increased 80,000 percent in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake. In Hong Kong, the search volume for keyword “earthquake” spiked 4,000 percent and “tsunami” 10,600 percent and both have remained the most searched keywords since then. 

Similarly, Korea witnessed a spike of 23,520 percent on the term “earthquake” and 40,025 percent for “tsunami.” All of this reveals the deep impact the earthquake has rendered in the minds and hearts of people across the Asia-Pacific.

Users also resorted to making specific keyword searches with some variations such as “Japan earthquake,” “Japan tsunami,” “earthquake 2011,” and “Japanese tsunami 2011.” 

Among the most searched topics, Filipinos also used several quake-related terms specifically on how susceptible the Philippines is to an earthquake. Some searches are “Philippines Fault Line Map,” “Pacific Ring of Fire Map” and “Marikina Fault Line.”

In Singapore and Malaysia, the keyword “Japan tsunami” had an increase of 30,450 percent and 9,100 percent, respectively, just within a day after the tsunami struck.