Based on the search strings that trended for November 9th, the world turned to Google in an effort to understand the President-elect's surprise win and the United States' complicated voting system. Google Trends posted the most popular searches after Donald Trump was named the 48th President of the United States on Twitter, and as Mashable noted, it reflects a lot of people's confusion.
As you would expect, the candidates' names are linked to election-related searches, such as "What will Hillary Clinton do now?" and "How did Donald Trump win?" But even generic search strings like "How did..." and "Why did..." were dominated by the presidential elections. "Why did Hillary concede?" trended, as well as the question that probably plagued a lot of people's minds: "How did the polls get it so wrong?" Across the pond, people also looked up what Trump means for Brexit.
We embedded some of Google's top search trends below, but you can check out Google's World POTUS website for more search data. As for what results come up when you look up these questions, we're afraid you're going to have to Google them yourself.
"What does Trump mean for Brexit?" was among the top questions on #Brexit in the hours following @realDonaldTrump's #USElection2016 win pic.twitter.com/wmb7JERu5M
— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) November 9, 2016
"Who won the #popular vote?" Top questions on Google today#USElection2016 pic.twitter.com/l1nGjbldb8
— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) November 9, 2016
Top searched "why did...?" questions today on Google#Elections2016 pic.twitter.com/95OjQHPieg
— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) November 9, 2016
"How did Donald Trump win?" Top questions on Google outside the US today#USElection2016 pic.twitter.com/JgkYcfGBkZ
— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) November 9, 2016
"What will @HillaryClinton do now?" Top questions on Google today#Elections2016 pic.twitter.com/THPyLc1y9I
— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) November 9, 2016
How @realDonaldTrump won the election in search#dataviz #Election2016 https://t.co/1AAVYl1QPm pic.twitter.com/x1A26yRhaL
— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) November 9, 2016