Yahoo searches have revealed a growing interest in wearable technology, thanks to Samsung’s (News - Alert) Galaxy Gear smart watch. Samsung just introduced the Galaxy Gear and while plenty of people have swapped wristwatches for cellphones, the new watch has inspired a lot of people to take a new look at the old technology.

Searches for the watch jumped 787 percent over the past month, but as an xkcd comic points out, that might not be all that impressive considering that the number was initially zero.

Of Yahoo’s user base, 77 percent of men searched for the watch. A number of other searches related to wearable technology had become popular as well, including “Casio (News - Alert) smart watch Bluetooth,” “Samsung smart watch price,” “Samsung Galaxy smart watch features. “Pebble smart watch” and “Omate Trusmart watch.”

“Fitbit” was the most popular search term on Yahoo related to wearable technology, followed by “Google (News - Alert) Glass,” “smart watch,” “Samsung smart watch,” “Jawbone Up,” “Sony Smart Watch” and “Apple smart watch.”

Women seemed to show more interest in fitness-related smart watches. Sixty-one and 70 percent of women searched for “Fitbit” and “Jawbone Up,” respectively.

Of the men, 74 percent of them searched for “Google Glass” and 76 percent of them searched for “Samsung smart watch.” Men also seemed very interested in smart watches, as 92 percent of the male Yahoo users searched for “Sony smart watch.”

One of the reasons for the increased interest in smart watches is that they complement other mobile devices easily. Users don’t necessarily want to pull their phones out of their pockets when all they want to check the time. Watches, after all, are the original wearable technology.

The Samsung Galaxy Gear offers some advantages over older timepieces, like the ability to make calls as Dick Tracy did in the comics. Time will only tell if the search results will lead to actual sales.


Edited by Rachel Ramsey