Following the August 28 announcement by singer Beyoncé that she was expecting her first child, internet searches for the term "Beyonce pregnant" increased by over 5,000 percent.
The R&B singer announced to the public that she and her husband, rapper Jay -Z, were expecting their first child after performing at the 2011 MTV Music Video Awards.
News of the announcement quickly spread around the world, breaking the record for the "most tweets per second record for a single event." In addition, data from Google Insights shows that the most searched for term over the past seven days was "Beyonce pregnant" which reached 'breakout' levels -- a term used by Google to describe a search with an increase of over 5,000 percent.
The data shows that while searches for 'Beyonce pregnant' peaked over August 29/30, they remained at a consistent level over the following six days; the majority of these searches originated in the United States, Ireland and South Africa. The R&B star, who turned 30 on September 5, also appeared fourth in the list of top ten search terms with the phrase 'Beyonce'.
Other popular searches over the seven days prior to September 5 included the Japanese word for Typhoon- ‘台風, ongoing tennis tournament the "US Open" and sports channel "ESPN3."
The search terms with the most significant growth worldwide in the last seven days, as measured by Google Insights and recorded September 5, were:
01. beyonce pregnant (breakout*)
02. 台風 (+1,350%)
03. beyonce (+400%)
04. us open (+400%)
05. espn3 (+250%)
06. lady gaga (+90%)
07. mtv (+90%)
08. pole emploi (+80%)
09. globesporte.com (+60%)
10. cricinfo (+50%)
*Breakout defines a search term that has experienced a change in growth greater than 5,000 percent.
