Kerala edges out Taj Mahal in Google search trend

Kerala has edged out the Taj Mahal to become the number one in Google's search trends for travel destinations in the country for 2012.

Munnar, a popular tourist destination in the state, is also on the list of Top 10 Indian destinations on Google's Zeitgeist site, showing search trends from around the world.

Kerala at number one and the Taj Mahal at number two were followed by the Wagah Border (Punjab), Vaishno Devi and Amarnath, both in Jammu and Kashmir.

Kashmir came number six on the list of Top ten travel destinations under the Google search trends for 2012.

According to search trends in the travel category released by Google for this year, Munnar was number nine, followed by the Gateway of India, Mumbai.

Kerala Tourism Minister AP Anil Kumar described the two listings for Kerala, including the number one spot, as a great encouragement for the state.

"Kerala tourism is a leader in online promotional activities for the state. We are one of the first government establishments to make use of the Internet to reach out to the world," he said.

Google's Zietgeist, which covers all search categories, answers the question of what the world searched for in a particular year.