- BLOG BEAG –

According to Interest over Time figures (below)  from Google covering the web search terms “george lee” cross referenced against “fine gael” for the last twelve months in Ireland, both terms reached highs together in May 2009. Fine Gael built on the interest and surged again in July 2009. Sadly neither capitalised on the other, with “George” flat-lining about a month after his election and “Fine Gael” unable to reach the levels of interest they had enjoyed up to George’s election in June 2009.

The numbers on the graph below reflect how many searches had been done for a particular term, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. They don’t represent absolute search volume numbers, because the data is normalized and presented on a scale from 0-100.

Run your cursor over the chart below to find the key dates. Significant news triggers for these high points to the search return figures were:

1. Search term “Fine Gael” [FG] – Feb 10, 2010 – George Lee resigns from Fine Gael
2. Search term “George Lee” [GL] – Feb 10, 2010 – George Lee resigns from Fine Gael
3. FG – Sep 27, 2009 – Fine Gael exit poll boost for Yes campaign
4. GL – Sep 20, 2009 – George Lee to speak on Lisbon
5. FG – June 7, 2009 – Fine Gael to heap pressure on Cowen with no-confidence vote
6. GL – May 31, 2009 – George Lee elected
7. FG – May 3rd, 2009 – George Lee may contest by-election for Fine Gael

Make up your own mind, but someone, by accident or design, missed an opportunity to explain their case or enhance their position.