A fair number of Brits are definitely celebrating the results of Thursday night’s EU referendum, but if Google’s trends are any indication, they’re not sure exactly what they just signed themselves up for.
Two hours after polls closed in most of the country—and just as the early results were rolling in—Google searches for “What happens if we leave the EU?” shot up by 250% on the search engine.
+250% spike in "what happens if we leave the EU" in the past hourhttps://t.co/9b1d6Bsx6D
— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) June 24, 2016
The trend map is pretty impressive. That, of course, wasn’t the only concern on British voters’ minds. Google also tracked several “what if” questions, some of which sustained their trend status early into Friday morning.
"What if the EU referendum is a draw?" Top "what if…?" searches on the #EUref since first results announced pic.twitter.com/gkfMFuFwDN
— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) June 24, 2016
Several thousand users also searched for instructions on how to get an Irish passport, now that Ireland’s status in regards to the European Union is in question.
If poll-watchers were monitoring Google before the vote, they might have seen some indication of Thursday night’s results. According to the Daily Mail, prior to voting, there were plenty of searches pertaining to immigration, the economy, national security and and sovereignty, all concerns that we now know were on voters’ minds Thursday.
