How We Googled North Korea In 2012 | NK News
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October 11, 2024
Opinion

How We Googled North Korea In 2012

Throughout the year 2012 Google received over 1.2 trillion searches in 142 different languages. Last year Google users searched millions times for information about Whitney Huston and Gangnam Style, and ogled millions of times over the images of One Direction and Selena Gomez.  While these terms may have been the zeitgeist, it wasn't just pop-culture icons on the minds of the average internet user in 2012.

'North Korea’ has an average Google Search rate of 1,500,000 unique searches per month. But while netizens reflect a clear interest in Googling the DPRK over South Korea, search engine giant Google and North Korea have always appeared to have a prickly relationship. Google Maps currently shows no data on the countries road orientations and locations and Eric Schmidt's recent trip was regarded as "unhelpful" by the U.S. State Department.

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