ABU DHABI // What a difference a deal makes. Online interest in the capital has never been as high as during the past week, with more Google searches for Abu Dhabi than ever before. More than 7,000 news articles have been written worldwide about the Manchester City takeover in the past two weeks. The Google Insights application, which allows users to follow rising trends and track the popularity of Google searches worldwide, shows that interest in Abu Dhabi is growing considerably across the world.
The interest coincided with the takeover of Manchester City by the Abu Dhabi United Group on Aug 31. The next day saw the most Google searches for Abu Dhabi ever, although the number is not specified. Previous highs for Google searches for Abu Dhabi include the announcement, in January 2007, of the city's first Grand Prix, and, weeks later, news that the Louvre was to open a branch in the capital.
Before the Manchester City deal, the largest number coincided with the visit of George W Bush in January. Most searches for Abu Dhabi in the past 30 days came from the city itself, Dubai, London and Manchester. Online interest in Manchester City among Abu Dhabi internet surfers has been less than enthusiastic so far, with cities such as Sao Paolo, Brussels and Lisbon searching for the club on Google more often than the capital itself over the past 30 days.
@Email:rhughes@thenational.ae
