Searches for ‘homemade alcohol’ skyrocket as lockdown continues

We are now in the second week of our 21-day nationwide lockdown, and them isolation blues are starting to get to the fine citizens of this here country; if Google Search trends are anything to go by.

Alcohol ban in South Africa

While some of you have been turning to Google for more information on the alcohol ban currently in place, others had more sinister intentions.

Google tattled on you by releasing the latest search trend analysis. It shows that alcohol-related searches spiked by more than 500% over the past week.

The volume of searches for homemade alcohol spiked considerably at 14:00 on 4 April 2020; and again at 18:00 that same day. According to Google, the search phrase alcohol ban South Africa was most used at 2:00 on 3 April.

‘Homemade alcohol’ tops the list

At the top of the naughty list is the Free State, North West, Mpumalanga and Limpopo. Residents in those provinces seemed mostly interested in how to make homemade alcohol.

The Northern Cape, at the other end of the spectrum, showed very low levels of search interest for anything related to homemade alcohol, or the alcohol ban in South Africa.

It’s also clear from the graph below that residents in the Eastern Cape were curious about homemade alcohol and the alcohol ban in South Africa; however, nobody really wanted to know how to get alcohol.

Port Elizabeth, we see you…

By digging a bit deeper into the search trends data, we could see that Port Elizabeth residents had homemade alcohol and only homemade alcohol on the brain.

Residents in Sandton wanted more information about the alcohol ban; only 38% of the total search terms were about homemade alcohol. Hover over the map below to see for yourself.

According to Google Trends, search queries related to how to get alcohol also include how to make your own alcohol; as well as how to make alcohol at home, and strangely, how long does it take to get fit.

We are not even going to discuss those of you who wanted to know if one could get drunk from homemade pineapple beer; or those who wanted to know how to make alcohol at home fast...

Other search trends in South Africa

Not everyone was curious about the alcohol ban and all the ways to get your hands on it, it seems. Search terms for PlayStation (PS5) and St Augustine’s Hospital both topped more than 20 000 results on 8 April 2020.

This follows after Sony unveiled the new DualSense PS5 controller which should be released alongside the PS5 console later this year.

Half of the internet thinks the controller is too ugly, too big or too white. The other half (and yours truly included) couldn’t help but notice its resemblance to a Stormtrooper.