Roe V. Wade News Spurs Google Search Spike For 'U-Haul': Here's What It Means

Following the news of Monday night’s leaked draft of a potential U.S. Supreme Court overturn of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, many Americans responded by hitting Alphabet’s GOOGGOOGL Google search engine to look up U-Haul, the self-moving company owned by Amerco Inc. UHAL.

What Happened: Overnight Google searches for “U-Haul” increased by 1,328.57% over their normal levels within the roughly 10 hours after the Supreme Court news broke at roughly 9 p.m. EDT, according to data analytics supplied the Time2Play.com online resource.

The data analytics also focused on two states that were at the center of the abortion debate prior to the news leak from the court: Ohio, where the legislature is considering a proposed law that would criminalize abortion without exemptions for rape and incest, and Texas, which has a trigger law that would outlaw abortion in the event of a Roe v. Wade overturn.

According to Ben Treanor, a digital specialist with Time2Play.com, Google searches in Ohio for “U-Haul” spiked by 4,900% in the approximately 10 hours following the Roe v. Wade news while Texas searches were up by 2,400%.

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What It Means: “Google doesn't show you the actual number of people searching,” Treanor explained. “But it shows you the search volume on a 100-point scale. For example, I believe Ohio is normally around a four-point level, but with the search volume for U-Haul it was at a 100. I believe Texas was normally at around a six or a seven and it was 100, which is the top of the scale — it won't go any higher than that.”

Still, Treanor wondered about just how many people will be packing into U-Haul trucks in the event Roe v. Wade is overturned.

“I remember when Trump won, the first election searches for ‘move to Canada’ or ‘move to Europe’ really exploded,” he said. “That gave me the idea to start tracking this with the Roe v. Wade, especially with all these women stuck in the States.”

Photo courtesy of U-Haul