Search query spikes track broadcast schedules across US time zones in real time

Evidence

The team went to work to solve the puzzle. First, they discerned that the pattern of queries had produced five separate spikes, each beginning at forty-eight minutes after the hour. Then they learned that the query pattern occurred during the airing of the popular TV show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? The spikes reflected the successive time zones during which the show aired, ending in Hawaii. In each time zone, the show’s host posed the question of Carol Brady’s maiden name, and in each zone the queries immediately flooded into Google’s servers. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 234

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Search query data predicts events and trends faster than traditional media — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 235; Search query data reveals real-world events before traditional media does — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 233; Search queries yield collateral behavioral data beyond the key words themselves — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 208

Broader Connections

• Search queries yield collateral behavioral data beyond the key words themselves #exemplifies (0.78) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 208