Disappointed Gaga fans head to Google

Search engine trends can reveal a lot about the mentality of different nations, as we saw last year when the Royal Wedding was identified as the fastest-rising search term in the UK and Will and Kate mania gripped the streets.

Now it appears that Google searches have uncovered a secret Lady Gaga fan base in Indonesia as searches for the pop star shot up following the cancellation of her concert in Jakarta.

According to Google Insights for Search, queries for Lady Gaga in Indonesia have increased more than fivefold since early May. It was around this time that Islamic extremists and conservative sectors of Indonesian society began to kick up a fuss about the potentially corrupting influence of the pop star's music.

The concert was cancelled by Lady Gaga and her team. Despite the fact that the Indonesian government had awarded her a permit to perform in Jakarta, it was felt that the growing tide of disapproval from religious factions of society and protests posed a danger to the singer, as well as her fans.

Somewhat ironically, however, it appears that all the fuss around the singer has prompted many more people to look into Lady Gaga's music for themselves as online interest in the singer saw a dramatic peak in the past three weeks, with the majority of searches coming from Jakarta.

Furthermore, the more controversial songs, such as 'Judas' – a song that has incensed both Christian and Muslim religious groups around the world – appear to be of more interest than her more innocent hits, such as 'Edge of Glory'. The former has 139 million views on YouTube in the Indonesian region, while the latter has just 59 million views, according to figures obtained by The New York Post.

While this story is obviously on a very large scale, it does highlight the fact that search trends can really help to understand consumer interests in the real world; something that businesses might want to keep in mind and capitalise on where possible.