Western European locations are in vogue most recently among web surfers searching for information on investment destinations, according to Google’s rankings of the most searched for place names using the term ‘invest in’.

France, Spain and Germany were the three most sought-after markets, knocking the US down to number four. The German region of Bavaria, a regular in the rankings, remains of interest, as does Macedonia, which has also started to show up regularly on the search list.

Meanwhile, Russian-language internet users are exploring opportunities primarily in areas at home and in the near abroad (including the Arctic), but are also showing interest in the markets of the Association of South-east Asian Nations, the US and Latin America.

Methodology

These lists have been provided exclusively to fDi by Google. They have been created using Google’s ‘Zeitgeist’ tools, designed to give insight into online search trends. For more information on Google Zeitgeist please visit the website: www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist/index.html.