In our continuing series of examining Google Search Trends to gain insights into the most queried keyword phrases in the USA, we present our findings for August 2024.
Every day of the month, we collect three keyword phrases with the highest search volume reported by Google Trends – Trending Now (US Only). Each keyword phrase has an estimated query volume attached to it, which we also record. After the conclusion of the month, we review the entire list of phrases along with their volumes to understand what motivated people to enter those queries. Our series of reports gives a snapshot of the most important topics on the populace’s minds, sometimes with some year-over-year growth or decline analysis.
First Full Month of The New “Trending Now” Data
If you read our report from July 2024, you learned that Google changed how it reports daily trends. With this change, our collection of keywords is not an exact match. The old format provided keywords for a specific date, up to 20 phrases. The interface has a date when the keyword phrases started “being searched more than usual.” When the keyword query volume returns to “typical search volume,” end date and time are applied.
The dates attached to all keyword phrases in this report (and all reports moving forward unless Google changes something) denote when the trend started. Each phrase’s total number of queries is based on a capture within 7 days of the phrase’s trending. Our collection is a little more complicated now with some editorial choices to be made, but we feel like we have a handle on the data and can present a thorough snapshot of what was on the minds of the US search audience for a given month. With that, we have grouped keyword phrases into themes to help explain the patterns we saw.
Movies We Want To See
The list has the names of films that started to trend in August 2024:
- It Ends With Us – 8/6/2024 – 2,000,000+ queries
- Alien Romulus – 8/13/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- Blink Twice – 8/23/2024 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Beetlejuice Beetlejuice – 8/28/2024 – 200,000+ queries
- The Deliverance – 8/30/2024 – 2,000,000+ queries
The list is bookended by two keyword phrases that drove over 2 million queries. It Ends With Us premiered at the AMC in Lincoln Square, Manhattan, with a wider release on the 9th. The Deliverance was released in some theaters on August 16 but began streaming on Netflix on the 30th. The other films were less prevalent in search volume last month, with one interesting note about Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Although it was released in the US on September 6th, it opened at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on August 28.
Music Artists We Wanted To Hear
Last month, musical artists’ names made the list more often than in past months. Here’s our list, which was gathered from Google Trends.
- Taylor Swift – 8/7/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- Sabrina Carpenter – 8/23/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- Oasis – 8/24/2024 – 200,000+ queries
On the 8th, a threat of violence at a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna, Austria, led to the cancellation of the show and the rest of the tour. On the 23rd, Sabrina Carpenter released her sixth studio album, Short n’ Sweet. Lastly, the Gallagher brothers announced they were getting back together and returning on tour for the first time in 15 years.
TV Shows We Wanted To Watch
We saw a couple of TV shows in the data.
- Love Island Reunion – 8/18/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- Only Murders in the Building – 8/25/2024 – 200,000+ queries
The Love Island Season 6 reunion aired on August 18, 2024, on Peacock, which reunited the cast for the first time since the finale in Fuji. The comedy Only Murders In The Building had its 4th season premiere on the 25th.
Presidential Race Continues
With the election three months away, our collection contained more queries related to the US Presidential race. Let’s run through this list.
- Tim Walz – 8/6/2024 – 5,000,000+ queries
- Trump Musk interview – 8/12/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- DNC schedule – 8/17/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- DNC – 8/18/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- Bill Clinton – 8/19/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- Michelle Obama speech – 8/20/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- Gus Qalz – 8/21/2024 – 2,000,000+ queries
- Bill Clinton age – 8/21/2024 – 200,000+ queries
- Kamala Harris – 8/22/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- Kamala Harris interview – 8/28/2024 – 500,000+ queries
Kamala Harris announced her running mate pick on August 6th, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. On the 12th, Donald Trump was interviewed by Elon Musk on X, although there were technical difficulties. The Democratic National Convention began on August 19th and featured Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama as speakers. During the convention, people were interested in Bill’s age and Tim Walz’s son, Gus. Kamala accepted the party’s nomination on the 22nd. After that, Ms Harris was interviewed on CNN. If trends continue like they did in 2020, we will see substantial query numbers in the month leading up to the election.
In Other News
Two topics grabbed the attention of the US search audience: monkeypox and a breach of social security database information.
- monkeypox – 8/14/2024 – 1,000,000+ queries
- monkeypox outbreak – 8/17/2024 – 500,000+ queries
News of a monkeypox outbreak in Africa made headlines in the middle of the month, and people searched Google for more information.
- social security breach – 8/14/2024 – 500,000+ queries
Also, on the 14th, there was news of a massive data breach involving the personal records of millions of people, including social security numbers. Thank goodness everybody has at least four companies monitoring their credit now, right?
A Whole Lotta Sports
Even with the change to the Google Trends interface, the data still presented the popularity of sports. We have lists of keyword phrases related to the Olympics, two kinds of football, the UFC, and the Paralympics.
The 2024 Summer Olympics were held in Paris, and here are how they were manifested as Google search keywords.
- Olympic golf leaderboard – 8/1/2024 – 200,000+ queries
- gymnastics rings Olympics – 8/3/2024 – 2,000,000+ queries
- men’s 200m final – 8/4/2024 – 2,000,000+ queries
- sport climbing combined Olympics – 8/7/2024 – 10,000,000+ queries
- USA vs Serbia basketball – 8/8/2024 – 2,000,000+ queries
- Anna Hall – 8/8/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- breaking Olympics 2024 – 8/9/2024 – 5,000,000+ queries
- Australian break dancer – 8/9/2024 – 2,000,000+ queries
- USA vs France basketball – 8/10/2024 – 2,000,000+ queries
- Emma Hayes – 8/10/2024 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Olympics – 8/11/2024 – 5,000,000+ queries
Congratulations to all the winners, and a special shout out to the Australian Breakdancer who made a worthy appearance on our list.
European football matches and league were popular and drove over a half million queries three times during the month.
- Real Madrid vs Barcelona – 8/2/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- Real Madrid vs Atalanta – 8/13/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- premier league – 8/15/2024 – 1,000,000+ queries
The Ultimate Fighting Championship organization had their obligatory placement in the data.
- ufc 305 – 8/16/2024 – 1,000,000+ queries
College football started up last month, and there were a few phrases that made the grade.
- Florida State football – 8/22/2024 – 1,000,000+ queries
- NCAA football – 8/22/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- Colorado football – 8/29/2024 – 1,000,000+ queries
Lastly, at the end of the month, the Paralympics began, and keyword phrases related to the events had some of the highest search volumes of the month.
- wheelchair basketball Paralympics – 8/30/2024 – 5,000,000+ queries
- athletics Paralympics – 8/31/2024 – 5,000,000+ queries
Economic Interests
There were some indications that the US economy was softening. Here are the keyword phrases that were related to the growing fear.
- bitcoin price – 8/4/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- stock market – 8/5/2024 – 2,000,000+ queries
Bitcoin’s price dropped by 4% on the 4th, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 2.6% the next day. Thankfully, these two declines were isolated to the beginning of the month.
Notes From The Tech World
We found three phrases that were related to the Tech Industry.
- Susan Wojcicki – 8/10/2024 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Pixel 9 – 8/12/2024 – 500,000+ queries
- Pavel Durov – 8/24/2024 – 200,000+ queries
Sadly, the former CEO of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki, passed away on the 9th after a two-year battle with cancer. Google’s newest phone was announced on August 13th, and the co-founder and CEO of the messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France on the 24th.
Natural Events
In recent months, we have seen increased search queries related to natural disasters and astronomical events. Here’s what we saw in August of 2024.
- tropical storm Debby hurricane – 8/3/2024 – 200,000+ queries
- earthquake near me – 8/7/2024 – 1,000,000+ queries
- flood warning – 8/8/2024 – 1,000,000+ queries
- Hurricane Ernesto – 8/11/2024 – 5,000,000+ queries
- earthquake – 8/12/2024 – 1,000,000+ queries
- blue moon – 8/16/2024 – 1,000,000+ queries
Whether they want to stay informed about severe weather warnings or seek details on once-in-a-blue-moon occurrences, people turn to search engines for timely information. Google Trends clearly shows this utility, and we wonder if AI can match the intent of these types of queries to the satisfaction of users. Thanks for reading. If you liked this article, we utilize search trends data for all our clients, and we invite you to learn more about our SEO services.
