Now that you know the story though, let’s talk about the impact.

One of the great things about modern technology is it’s ability to help us take a pulse on society, nearly instantaneously.

As Google Trends shows, starting during the protest and extending into the long weekend following, “tppa” was one of the most searched for terms in all of New Zealand. In fact, more people wanted Google to tell them what the heck the TPPA was than how to get from point A to point B (with “maps” being one of the top search key words, this is a pretty big win).

TPPA (blue line) busts past maps and weather (New Zealand’s MetService).

To see how the protest piqued the public’s curiosity, Google Trends can show us two things.

First, top related queries were “what is tppa”, “tppa facts”, etc. This implies that the people doing most of the searching don’t know much about the TPPA (and that the government, which ostensibly represents the will of the people, has done a fairly poor job of informing them about such a huge issue).

TPPA related searches

Second, and perhaps more interesting is how the spike for “tppa” searches is much higher than that which is for “tpp” searches. The reason that’s interesting is the NZ government and media often refer to the Trans-Pacific Partnership as “TPP”, while protest groups almost universally call it the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (“TPPA”). So if you want to know who is winning the media war, this chart shows it all. The score is 5 to 1, and the people on the streets waving the anti-TPPA signs are winning.

Searches for TPPA outnumber TPP five to one.

Finally, for the thousands of Aucklanders seeing the SkyCity blockade or the massive march walking by, what would they learn when they search for “tppa”?

They’d find the top result is from a citizens’ group opposing the TPPA.

“What is the TPPA?” from It’s Our Future — top Google search result for “tppa” search.

According to research, the top search result can expect about 33% of all traffic (it trails off fast for results below that), and those users clicking result #1 would learn of a number of problems with the international deal:

Huge Impact on Kiwis… If it goes ahead, we risk damage to our innovative economy, our pristine environment, our health, and the ability to shape our own future. — It’s Our Future

The world can’t change when people don’t know what’s wrong with it. Marches and blockades are sometimes criticized as stale or inconvenient, but this shows they can certainly drive the message home. What those searchers from the sidelines do next is up to each of them. They might even raise their fists in solidarity.