Google searches for 'Romney' from Pakistan surged in recent months

While Obama led the overall searches, Pakistan had rising interest in Romney in recent months too.

Google analytics for searches from Pakistan for Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney showed a dramatic spike in the month of October as the US presidential race heated up, The Washington Post reported.

According to the Google data, searches for Obama were far ahead of Romney from within Pakistan. Unlike President Obama who often grabbed the headlines on one pretext or another, his political opponent Romney received scant attention up till July, 2012, barely four months prior to elections.

However, as the election race heated up, Pakistan’s interest towards Romney piqued.

While Obama continued to dominate searches – leading average searches by 37 basis points to the Republican candidate’s six, they surged to 100 volume index points for Obama to Romney’s 53 by early November.

A city wise breakdown for search terms involving Obama showed that Islamabad (100 search volume index points) accounted for the most searches closely followed by Karachi (98 search volume index points). Lahore was a distant third with 81 search volume index points and Peshawar came in fourth with 74. For Romney, both Islamabad and Karachi were level at 100 search volume index points, while Lahore was a distant third at 76.