January difficulties get Kenyans googling for solutions

January’s reputation as a financially-difficult month for Kenyans has been affirmed by Google’s latest trend results.

Typically, people spend heavily in December while parents in particular have to come up with school fees for their children in January.

So it probably comes as no surprise that users of Google's search engine in Kenya looked up financial solutions and job opportunities last month.

Village capital, a programme that sources, trains, and invests in impactful seed-stage enterprises was what internet users looked for most in the field of finance.

It was followed by “I need finance” which can be interpreted as an attempt to find means of getting funds to use for various activities in January.

At third place was “Recurrent budget”, a term that ehow, an online how-to guide, says refers to a budget that considers variable and not fixed costs. In the category was also “Market bullrun”, “Economy” and “Product knowledge” at the fourth, fifth and sixth positions.

In terms of job opportunities, the most searched terms were “Faulu Kenya vacancies”. Faulu Kenya Deposit Taking Microfinance Limited had a number of advertised positions for relationship officers and sales representatives.

"Kenya National Commission on Human Rights vacancies" and "KEMRI careers" came second and third, respectively.

CATEGORIES

The Google results are divided into eight categories: romance, most searched people, education, lifestyle, foreign sites accessed from Kenya, finance-related stuff, jobs, and sports.

Form one selection, a hoax about bottled water in Nigeria, plus a French dating website, a Bangladeshi university, a Manchester United footballer, and England’s FA Cup also formed part of the most googled terms in Kenya last month.

In education, the search phrase “Form one selection” was the one entered most. It was followed by “KASNEB results”, and subsequently “KEMU portal”.

Meanwhile, the lifestyle list has “Dew bottled water”, which was reported to cause deaths in Nigeria, on top. These allegations were later dismissed as false by the Nigerian National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control. (EXTERNAL: DEW Bottled Water Fatal Poisoning Hoax)

“Scorpio daily horoscope” was the second most searched for lifestyle item. “Hairstyles for women” followed.

Other entries on the list also proved revealing.

A French dating website, www.faces.eu, led the romance category. “Blue Ivy Birthday”, the birthday of the daughter of megastar couple Jay-Z and Beyoncé that falls on January 7, came below it and “Hairstyles for women” followed.

In sports, the FA Cup, a football tournament in England, led the way. The Australian Open was second and "Man U Transfer" got into position three.

Kenya’s Google users also searched for foreign websites. The most popular was www.nu.edu.bd of the National University of Bangladesh followed by Nigerian news website Aminiya and www.bbc.hausa.com in that order.

The most searched person was footballer Juan Mata, who moved from Chelsea to Manchester United, both English Premier League clubs. (READ: Mata officially unveiled by United)

Second in the list was the late BBC journalist Komla Dumor, who passed away on January 18, 2014. (READ: BBC World TV's Komla Dumor dies at 41)

In third place was Mohamed Salah, an Egyptian footballer who plays as a winger for English Premier League club Chelsea. (READ: Salah joins Chelsea from Basel)

FINANCE RELATED

• Village capital
• I need finance
• Recurrent budget
• Market bullrun
• Economy
• Product knowledge

JOBS

• Faulu Kenya vacancies
• Kenya National Commission on Human Rights vacancies
• KEMRI careers
• Electrical Engineer salary
• Freelance writing service
• UN peacekeeping jobs

ROMANCE

• Faces EU dating site
• Blue Ivy birthday
• Hairstyles for women
• MSN dating
• The Young Victoria
• Spree
• Hysterosalpingogram
• Love messages
• Flirting

MOST SEARCHED PEOPLE

• Juan Mata
• Komla Dumor
• Mohamed Salah
• Ariel Sharon
• Binyavanga Wainaina
• Nemanja Matić
• James Avery
• Lupita Nyongo
• Lesego Motsepe
• Nicholas Biwott
• Jerry Okungu

EDUCATION

• Form one selection
• KASNEB results
• KEMU portal
• IAT Kenya
• Kirinyaga University
• Catholic University of Eastern Africa
• Kenya Institute of Management
• CPA results
• Universities in Australia

LIFESTYLE

• Dew bottled water
• Scorpio daily horoscope
• Hairstyles for women
• Lymphadenitis
• Herniogram
• Peugeot 508
• Chicken nuggets recipe
• Painkillers and alcohol
• Fire protection
• Slimming herb
• AIDs Conference 2014
• Interior design photos

FOREIGN SITES ACCESSED FROM KENYA

• www.nu.edu.bd
  Aminiya
• bbc.hausa.com
• Matric result 2013
• www.t-online.de
• Horseed media.net
• Rams comics

SPORTS

• FA Cup
• Australian Open
• Man U transfer
• Royal Rumble 2014
• Arsenal vs Tottenham
• Epl Transfer window
• Lfc transfer news
• Las vegas sevens
• goal.com manutd
• Mapinduzi cup results
• Supersports news .com