Affiliations 

  • 1 Faculty of Information Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), UiTM Selangor, Shah Alam, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
Int J Inf Technol, 2022 Jan 29.
PMID: 35128305 DOI: 10.1007/s41870-021-00825-5

Abstract

Since January 2020, the emergence of Covid-19 has sparked a worldwide search for information about Covid-19. People frequently use the internet to search the information on the virus. However, the pandemic have triggered the information-seeking trends among public. As a result, large amount of information could lead to infodemic. It will create public concerned such as panic and paranoid because this information spread rapidly. The aim of this study is to analyze information about Covid-19 that has been searched in Malaysia. We investigated online search behavior related to the Covid-19 outbreak among public by using Google Trends to understand public searching behavior on Covid-19. The findings from this study can be used as a tool to monitor public searching activities on Covid-19, which could predict future action regarding the outbreak.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.