After having voted to leave EU in Brexit vote, Britishers now ask Google ‘What is the EU’
You cannot expect Britishers to be so dumb. Just hours after deciding to leave EU in a historic vote which has pushed the British Pound to the netherworld, caused a mega-collapse in stock markets around the world and pushed gold and silver prices to a new highs, the Britishers seem to have woken from the euphoria surrounding the vote.
According to Google Trends, just hours after the EU vote, United Kingdom citizens are searching what exactly is EU on Google. Surprising as it may seem, it was after the polls closed when British voters started to think seriously about the implications of their choice.
"What is the EU?" is the second top UK question on the EU since the #EURefResults were officially announced pic.twitter.com/1q4VAX3qcm
— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) June 24, 2016
According to data from Google Trends, the searches for “what is the eu” and “what is brexit” started climbing across Britain late into the night. The polls closed at 10 p.m. local time.
It also seems that Britishers voted in the remain/leave referendum sans any researcher or decision because another top query on Google search was “What happens if we leave the EU?” The search spike seems to suggest that UK voters weren’t exactly sure what they were getting into.
Northern Ireland and Scotland voters fare equally to their English counterparts on the dumb quotient. Google Trends, on Twitter, has highlighted a few local spikes, too, with “what is Brexit” a top search related to the referendum in both Northern Ireland and Scotland. Both of them voted in favor of remaining in the EU.
"What will happen if we leave the EU?" Top questions on the #EUref in Northern Ireland since first results announced pic.twitter.com/VKmbRrZoPZ
— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) June 24, 2016
"What happens if we leave the EU?" Top questions on #EUref in Scotland since polls closed pic.twitter.com/ngOsEOPDXZ
— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) June 24, 2016
While some from London who were against the leave are now searching future residency options by googling for “move to Gibraltar.” (Gibraltar is a British territory in southern Europe.)
+680% spike in searches for "Move to Gibraltar" in London since polls closed #EUref https://t.co/aMkqjxXH2i pic.twitter.com/wXa1Rk7zjE
— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) June 24, 2016
There is only one lesson that can be drawn from the Google Trends for Brexit, do some research BEFORE you vote in such historic referendums, not AFTER.
