Last year I wrote a post about whether "Google Insights for Search" could accurately predict the BBC's Sports Personality of The Year.
And guess what, it did!
@Worldhood even slapped a tenner on Ryan Giggs AT 2-1 making himself a tidy profit - as the bookies had lined up Jenson Button.
So could Google Insights predict the SPOTY winner for a second year in a row?
According to Google, Mark Cavendish (again), AP McCoy, Amy Williams, Phil "The Power" Taylor and Graeme McDowell – have all had great years but Google is saying ... "its not you".
The BBC announced the nominations on the 29th November; however this wasn't followed by an immediate spike for any athlete. However we can see two significant spikes over the past two weeks.
The first for David Haye and the second for Graeme Swann.
Graeme Swann's popularity can probably and safely be put down to the Ashes, just as last year Andy Murray's spike was down to the ATP finals.
David Haye's spike is also interesting - however this also coincides with his ringside presence at last weekend’s Amir Khan fight and subsequent interviews and rumours surrounding a potential fight with either of the Klitschko brothers.
Lee Westwood has also been in the news this week due to his battle with Tiger Woods to be World number one, and this may be behind his upturn after the 12thDecember.
Rather annoyingly the bookmakers massively confuse the issue as their favourites are virtually the exact opposite to Google Search results.
So I guess this year’s conclusion is that it’s too difficult and confusing to call.
Pure data would suggest (and wrongly in my opinion) David Haye, but the most natural Google searches seem to be around the rather unlikely winner of Tom Daley.
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UPDATE @ 18.57pm on Sunday 19th December
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Ran the search again on Sunday evening before the start of the programme and the past 24 hours has seen a massive increase in the number of Google searches for Jessica Ennis. (see below)
Is this sudden burst in searches going to identify the winner??? Lets see.....
