Not that it’s any surprise, but lots of people have been looking for Steve Jobs-related info since he announced his resignation as the CEO of Apple. Key phrases were all over Google Trends, and Yahoo has reached out to WebProNews sharing what they expect to see spiking on Yahoo, based on data from its search data team.
“We sift through billions of Yahoo! searches to uncover trends, burning questions, popular personalities and hot ideas,” the team says. “Yahoo! has been extremely successful in sifting through searches for trend-spotting, historical insight, forecasting projections, and big-picture analysis.”
Yahoo says that it expects continued spikes in searches related to:
- Steve Jobs Family – searches on his kids, wife, etc. Also maybe author Mona Simpson, who is his sister.
- Pixar – and other non-Apple achievements
- Job Titles : Chairman of the Board, CEO of Apple, Probably questions about what a CEO does, maybe a couple of other positions too…
- Tim Cook – users will wonder about him, his history, biography, etc; also speculation on how he’ll do (at least there’s a lot of speculation on Twitter and Facebook)
- Steve Wozniak
- Pancreatic Cancer – Speculation and rumors about his health will be one of the biggest themes. This will include searches on “pancreatic cancer symptoms”. Also expect searches on other celebrities who had pancreatic cancer (Patrick Swayze, for instance). Likely also questions about pancreatic cancer survival rate – oh, and causes of pancreatic cancer. Maybe also searches on liver transplants. Should note that on Facebook and Twitter another theme is people who have lost loved ones to pancreatic cancer making comments about the situation.
- Apple Stock – should be a big theme in search
- Apple Products – users might wonder about how this news will affect particular products in development (upcoming iPhones; iPad 3…)
- Apple History – searches on the Macintosh, how the company started, etc; maybe even that famous Mac commercial (the 1984-themed one)
- News and Blogs – especially Apple-centric blogs and tech blogs; MacRumors, etc
- Photos – users will want to see recent photos of Steve Jobs; likely interest in some videos too
- Comments on the News – users seem to be in the habit now of looking for celebrity commentary (especially tweets) about buzzy events; in this case we’ll probably see interest on comments from tech leaders, too.
- Writing to Steve Jobs – I have this suspicion that some users will ask how they can contact Steve Jobs to send him their… sympathy, their get well wishes
- Thanks – big theme on Twitter; people just thanking Steve Jobs for all he’s done
Yahoo says it also expects to see a big increase in questions related to Steve Jobs.:
- I’m expecting we’ll see searches on “is steve jobs dying” and many variations
- “who is ___” – esp. “who is tim cook”; we’ll also see “who is steve jobs” searches
- “who will replace steve jobs”
- “why did steve jobs resign” and variations
- “what will steve jobs do now” – I saw this in a Facebook thread, so I expect it in search, too.
- Users unfamiliar with his health history.
- “who is on the apple board”
For more on Steve Jobs and the resignation, see our previous coverage:
Steve Jobs Resigns as CEO of Apple
Meet the New CEO of Apple, Tim Cook
AAPL: Apple Stock Declines Following Steve Jobs’ Resignation
Steve Wozniak Talks Steve Jobs and Apple
Steve Jobs: A Video Retrospective
Tim Cook to Apple Team: Apple is Not Going to Change
Steve Jobs Resignation Will Feature in Upcoming Biography
Steve Jobs: Apple Employees Say What They Think About Him