Some ill-thought-out Google statistics in the Nürnberger Nachrichten, 21 February 2008:

Dass Bären schon immer erfolgreich waren, unterstrich André Fischer, Lokalchef der Nürnberger Zeitung. Doch erst das Internet habe den Eisbären-Boom möglich gemacht. 2,2 Millionen Google-Treffer habe der Begriff “Flocke” bereits. Günter Beckstein , so Moderator Siegfried Zelnhefer vom Presseamt, müsse sich mit 42 000 zufriedengeben, Angela Merkel mit 318 000.

I get 11,400,000 for Flocke, but that includes flock wallpaper, a hot air company (appropriately) called Heißlufttechnik Flocke GmbH, a horse, some people with the surname Flocke, a flock of tables and Professor Dietrich Flockerzi.

Günter Beckstein is much more of a rara avis. I get only 3,660 ghits if I enclose the name in inverted commas. This takes account of various spellings of his first name. For “Angela Merkel” 4,280,000. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was close to the figure for genuine polar bear Flocke hits, which puts Frau Merkel in quite a different league.