Billy Adams: Word on the street says aye and so does Google

Photo / AP

You see it in place names like St Kilda and Blairgowrie. Or in the sometimes miserable weather. For a Scot in Melbourne, reminders of a distant homeland are never far away.

Even the raging independence debate briefly blew this way, after an Australian website looked at what Scots had been searching on the internet and asked: is Google predicting a Yes vote in tomorrow's referendum?

Melbourne digital agency Dando was the first to publish this kind of analysis. And thousands of my compatriots - starved of impartial information in the overwhelmingly pro-union media back home - put the firm's server under unprecedented strain.

It's a struggle to source many news stories focusing on potential positives of Scotland breaking away from the UK.

No real surprise when you consider the majority of Scotland's 37 daily and Sunday newspapers have thrown their weight behind the Better Together campaign. Glasgow's Sunday Herald is the exception that proves British rule.

Independence supporters say even the BBC has lost its once envied sense of balance.The opposing narrative plays out on the streets and in social media. Debate rages as passionately in town halls as on Twitter, the arguments not always as clear as windows across the country plastered in Yes stickers.

Family and friends on the ground confirm a left-of-centre leaning nation consumed by an Obama-style grassroots campaign that emphasises the benefits of going it alone. No more Tory governments they didn't vote for, no more nuclear weapons housed 50km from their biggest city, no more unpopular policies like the Poll Tax or Bedroom Tax. What country wouldn't want two thirds of Europe's remaining oil, however disputed the amount? "The question is do we have lots of oil, or lots and lots of oil," says Scotland's Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

The economy is key in a referendum framed as an opportunity for Scots to make their own decisions rather than walk away because of where they come from. Leading the charge is nationalist First Minister Alex Salmond, who has overseen the transformation of the SNP from a bunch of broadsword-carrying oddballs into today's slick mainstream force. Seven largely successful years running Scotland's devolved Parliament has convinced many of the merits of independence -- inconceivable even a decade ago. Against a backdrop of rising inequality and Westminster-led austerity, the Yes campaign's promise of continued free university education, health and dental care resonates in a country that continues to hold dear its Labour and trade union traditions.

But can Scotland afford independence? That's the $300 billion question - the size of its GDP - most likely to give undecideds pause before committing pen to paper. Do they believe the Yes assertion of a fairer and more prosperous future or Better Together's dire warnings that the country will effectively go to hell in a hand basket?

Intrigued by the contrast of opinion polls consistently saying no, and friends telling me the word on the street is yes, I wondered if Google Trends might offer some clues. The freely available tool showed searches of independence-related terms favoured Yes by a striking margin.

Wearing another professional hat, I'm also Dando's head of content and with the help of search specialist Peter Mead we published the results on the agency's website. If Google turns out to be right, the polls - like Scotland - may never be the same again.