Anyone Googled Hyderabad Lately?
Google’s India’s Year End Zeitgeist report revealed that the city of Mana is amongst the favorites of the Indian net surfers this year as it turns out that it is the most Googled for city in 2013 beating. Events such as Dilsukhnagar twin blasts which killed 17 people and injured more than a 100, the Telangana crisis, the IPL matches, the questioning of terrorist Yasin Bhatkal by the Hyderabad police and the Volvo bus tragedy in October which killed 45 people made Hyderabad the most searched for city.
Educationist G Haragopal said that “Hyderabad has been in the national news for a while now, with the bifurcation issue no more restricted to only the state. People from other cities are also curious about Osmania University (OU) and other educational institutes of Hyderabad,”
As Mana came out to be the most searched for city, Tollywood stars such as Mahesh Babu, Kaajal Agarwal and Samantha were the most searched for local celebrities on the internet.
Akbaruddin Owaisi was the only non-film personality to figure on that list.
When Owaisi was admitted to the hospital early this year and then again in August when he and his brother Asaduddin Owaisi announced the expansion plans for their party, Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), and the possibility of contesting elections in other states just as well, Owaisi’s virtual popularity increased. The maximum number of hits in any news which was related to the politician was seem when the MIM chief’s hate speech was delivered in 2012.
OU, the hotbed of the Telangana agitation, was the most looked up educational institution in the city, followed by JNTU, Andhra University and Kakatiya University. One place which was the most searched for in Hyderabad was the Big Cinemas multiplex which had been in the news in the month of May after it announced that the chain of theaters will be thrown open to retail clothes stores. According to Haragopal “it is the composite cultural environment of the city that draws people to find out more about Hyderabad as and when events occur here.”
Denisha Sahadevan
