Yahoo Tracks St. Patrick’s Day Search Trends

Today, people all over the world have donned green clothing, cued up Celtic music, and resolved to drink Guinness in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day.  They’ve also conducted lots of searches related to the holiday, and Yahoo provided some interesting stats on the matter earlier this morning.

One quick note first: of the three major search engines, Bing is the only one featuring an Irish theme or logo today.  Which makes Google and Yahoo seem guilty of a rather large oversight.

Anyway, a post on the Yahoo Search Blog stated, “Searches for ‘st patrick’s day shirts’ are up 182% this week on Yahoo! and 67% of searches are by females. . . .  Searches are up 118% this week on Yahoo! for ‘celtic women.’  Searches for ‘celtic symbols,’ ‘celtic tattoos’ and ‘celtic crosses’ are all spiking this week on Yahoo!. . . .  Searches for ‘shamrock’ are up 20% this week . . .”

Then the post delved into some food-specific info, continuing, “Searches this week on Yahoo! are up 380%  for ‘corned beef recipes,’ and up 120% for ‘cabbage recipes.’  Also spiking: ‘stuffed cabbage’ and ‘how to cook corned beef.’”

As for the subject of beer, Budweiser and Bud Light unfortunately continue to be the top two brands Yahoo users have searched for, but Guinness at least came in third.

Of course, there are region-specific differences in the popularity of St. Patrick’s Day, and Yahoo noted that folks in Boston, Chicago, and New York are particularly excited about it.  Festivals in Texas are getting a lot of attention, too.

Finally, to recap some other recent, Ireland-related news, we’ll note that Google’s becoming more active in the country, acquiring Green Parrot Pictures and buying an office building in the last month.