MANILA, Philippines – Google announced on Wednesday, March 9, it had launched a Search Trends page for Philippine elections-related topics and search strings.

The tool will allow users to bring up “the top queries, topics, and most-searched presidential and vice presidential candidates running in the elections.”

The page also has data on the top policy issues searched in each part of the country. These include issues like education, drugs, poverty, and justice, to name a few.

The information available on the page is embeddable, and the embeds should update even after they’ve been placed on a different site.

Google added the information available on the search trends page is neither a poll nor a survey and only reflects the interest in a particular candidate or a election-related topic at a specific point in time. As such, a spike in a given search term doesn’t reflect the popularity of a given candidate or topic of discussion as it relates to the Philippine elections.

One other nuance that should be noted is that it may not always get Philippines-specific search trends in its data.

As South Korea wrapped up its elections with results on March 10 regarding the victory of Yoon Suk-yeol, some of the results appearing in the “PH: Related searches to elections, past week” widget are instead related to South Korea’s elections.

More information on how to use and make the most out of the Google Search Trends page for the Philippine Elections is available on the Google News Initiative website. – Rappler.com