Sport dominated the July 2014 – Hot Searches with the Commonwealth Games, Tour de France and Wimbledon all falling in the same month. Like last year, in July 2013 – Hot Searches, tax was a hot topic among Australians with the start of the new financial year. But it was the Malaysia Airlines MH17 tragedy that Australians were most concerned about this month.

The world was shocked to learn another Malaysia Airlines flight had been involved in tragedy, after flight MH17 was shot down over the Ukraine. Searches for flight MH17 peaked on July 18 after news broke of the plane crash. This was the second incident involving Malaysia Airlines this year, after flight MH370 disappeared in March. Australians were concerned, with related search terms focusing on MH17 news, victims, lists and whether the bodies of those involved had been found.

The second most popular rising search term was the 2014 Commonwealth Games, held in Glasgow. Tasmanians were the most interested, searching significantly more than any other state. Australians showed their competitive streak with rising related search terms including Commonwealth Games paired with medal tally, results and Australia. Interest in the Commonwealth Games began to build on July 22, a day before the games began, and peaked on July 27 after which, interest began to drop.

Once again, tax was on our minds in July. The third highest rising search term was for eTax, while several other terms such as ATO and MyGov also made the list. Top related search terms for eTax included 2014, tax, ato, tax return, download, MyTax and myGov paired with eTax.Interest in eTax and ATO peaked on July 1, while myGov took a few days longer, peaking on July 9. Residents from the ACT and Tasmania were considerably more concerned with these search terms than the rest of the nation.

Interest in the search term Tour de France peaked on day one of the tour (July 5), however interest in the term remained throughout the month, tapering off on July 29 just after the tour ended. Top related searches included SBS, Le Tour, and Australian cyclist Cadel Evans. Once again, Tasmanians were keen to know more, being more interested in the Tour de France search term than any other state.

Although the 2014 Wimbledon Championships ran from June 23 to July 6, this search term still ranked highly. In terms of interest over time, Wimbledon saw two major peaks. The first was on July 2 after newcomer and Australian Nick Kygrios defeated World Number One, Rafael Nadal. The second peak was more expected and came on July 6, when the Men’s Final was played between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.

Australia ranked highly and was one of the countries most interested in Wimbleton searches, and unlike other search terms this month, regional interest was more consistent across Australia, with most states expressing interest. Popular related searches for Wimbledon included World Cup 2014, Wimbledon 2014, tennis, Nick Kyrgios, results, Nadal, Federer and live.

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