The use of Google's search engine by Indians has been increased by 70%, a top company official said. "The total intensity of Google usage in India has been increased by 70 per cent this April over the year-ago period," Google India Business Head, Narasimha Jayakumar told reporters on the sidelines of a Google exhibition of newer technologies called 'Google Creative Sand Box.'
According to Google's 'Brand Zeitgeist' which highlights the most searched brands, mobile phone maker Nokia emerged as the most searched brands in India followed by State Bank of India, Samsung, Sony and BSNL, he said. Financial sector has recorded a 73% growth in terms of searches and it is a mature category with 80% queries containing specific brands, Jayakumar said."The 33% of the queries from the financial sector were about banking and net banking is the top activity," he said.In insurance, LIC is the top searched brand followed by ICICI Prudential and Bajaj Allianz. India leads the world in the online interest for investing/stock markets, Jayakumar said. Automotive and Telecom are the fastest growing verticals in terms of search volumes on Google. Nokia is the biggest in the mobile phones category and Airtel is the biggest in service provider category, he said adding that Maruti is the leading brand in cars, while Yamaha leads the motorbikes category.
While research on specific brand makes and models are most popular, consumers do a lot of reading on expert websites and seek expert opinions on their vehicles or prospective buys on Google search, Jayakumar said. Another interesting trend, according to Google is, Air travel giving way to rail and bus bookings in the online travel category. The Indian Railway booking website is by far the most popular brand overall in travel. Honeymoon packages are the most researched for, followed by domestic holidays and international holidays, he said. In education sector, Google is flooded with 1 billion queries in 2009 of which 48 million are MBA related queries, he said.
