Donald Trump is most searched Republican candidate in 49 states

KABC logo
Friday, August 7, 2015
Donald Trump is the most searched Republican presidential candidate in many states around the U.S., an interactive Google map shows.
creativeContent-AP

When the most searched Republican presidential candidate in each county was mapped out, there was a glaringly obvious result: Internet users can't stop asking about Donald Trump.

Google News Lab collected the data based on Google searches of each candidate and broke down the results by county. The only state that searched another candidate more than Trump was Wisconsin, where the state's own Gov. Scott Walker was searched more.

The map cannot be interpreted as a projection of votes, as it does not specify whether the search corresponded to a positive, negative or neutral inquiry about the candidate. However, it does show that Trump, the current leader in the Republican polls with 23 percent support, has strong name recognition going into the first Republican debate.

When the second most searched candidate was mapped out in each county, the results get more diverse. There are pockets of green (for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush) and orange (Texas Sen. Ted Cruz), among others.

In the hour after each candidate announced they were running, Google tracked the most searched questions about that candidate. The top question for Donald Trump was "How old is Donald Trump?" followed by "What is Donald Trump's net worth?" Democrat Hillary Clinton was the only other candidate for whom net worth seemed to be a high source of curiosity among searchers.

The first Republican presidential candidate debate Thursday night will feature the top 10 candidates in the polls so far.

Scroll through Google's interactive map to see the first place searches, the second place searches and the results in each of several battle states.