Brits search for home safes and sewing classes

Google has revealed some surprising changes in what the British public are searching for online. The data come from Insights for Search, a free Google tool that analyses a portion of Google searches to compute how many searches have been done for a term relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time.

Among the interesting trends:

Searches for home safes are also up 150% over the levels in October 2007, and searches for safe savings are up 900%.

People's money worries reveal themselves in both expected and unexpected ways: searches for petrol prices are up 200% over last year, and searches for negative equity are up by 220%. Searches for redundancy insurance are up 450% over this time last year.
Britons are searching for comfort foods more: apple crumble is 40% more popular this year than last autumn.

Searches for homes in Spain are down 28% from 2007, searches for moving home are down 16%, and searches for fitted kitchens are down 17%.

People are also trying to economise: searches for vouchers are up 35% over 2007 and for budget meals are up 52% over 2007.

Searches for sewing classes are up 60%, and searches for clothes swaps are up 90%. Searches for city breaks are down almost 20%.

Elan Dekel, Product Manager at Google, said, "This is a fascinating snapshot into how Britons are reacting to the current economic situation. Every day, hundreds of millions of people search on Google, so we can see trends emerge in real time. What people are searching for gives insights into the zeitgeist, what people are interested in and what concerns them. And the best thing about this tool is that it's free for anyone to use, so you can learn more about past and current trends and break down data by geography and category."