This week’s controversy about Dubai Ports World operating US ports was quelled yesterday when the company announced it would hand over its six US port operations to a US entity. As the controversy has heated up in recent weeks, searches on ‘dubai’ and ‘dubai ports world’ skyrocketed, increasing by 159% and 552% respectively for the week ending 2/26/06 versus the week ending 2/19/06.

Searches for ‘dubai’ have been increasing steadily in the past six months, and Search Term Analysis for the four weeks ending 3/4/06 shows that the sites most commonly visited from a ‘dubai’ search were tourism sites. Google News accounted for only 2.2% of ‘dubai’ searches. However, Search Term Suggestion shows that ‘dubai ports world’ was the leading term containing ‘dubai.’ Other popular searches like ‘where is dubai’ and ‘map of dubai’ indicated that consumers were trying to educate themselves about Dubai. They also seem to be interested in Dubai’s growth and potential job opportunities halfway around the world. Additionally, Tiger Woods winning the Dubai Desert Classic and coverage of the Dubai Open tennis tournament has brought attention to the Emirate.
This is a good example of how it’s possible to gauge what’s on the mind of consumers using Search Intelligence, specifically Search Term Charting, Search Term Analysis and Search Term Suggestion. The Hitwise Search and Brand Whitepaper, which will be released in the coming weeks, discusses how you can apply these same techniques to managing your brand online.