Google released its 2008 Zeitgeist list of the most popular search terms for the year. Unlike Yahoo’s 2008 list of top search terms, Google looks at the fastest-rising searches of the year. That makes for a slightly more interesting list. (Yahoo’s list was basically a repeat of its 2007 list). Below are the two lists, and you can compare to Google’s list for 2007, which was dominated by technology searches (”iphone,” “facebook,” “youtube”).
Google’s Fastest Rising Search Terms for 2008 (Global)
1. sarah palin
2. beijing 2008
3. facebook login
4. tuenti
5. heath ledger
6. obama
7. nasza klasa
8. wer kennt wen
9. euro 2008
10. jonas brothers
Yahoo’s Top Search Terms For 2008
2. WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment)
3. Barack Obama
4. Miley Cyrus
5. RuneScape
6. Jessica Alba
7. Naruto
8. Lindsay Lohan
9. Angelina Jolie
10. American Idol
Here is the U.S. list for Google, which does have more overlap with last year’s.
Google.com – Fastest Rising (U.S.)
1. obama
2. facebook
3. att
4. iphone
5. youtube
6. fox news
7. palin
8. beijing 2008
9. david cook
10. surf the channel
The top-level Zeitgeist lists are not too surprising (they never are). The most interesting trends reveal themselves only when you dive deeper. For instance, in terms of search popularity, we find that “facebook” beat out “myspace,” the “martini” beat out the “mojito,” and “ice cream” beat out “chili.”
Certain terms peak and then drop off, but they can tell us more about the national mindset than terms that remain consistently strong. For instance, searches for “hybrid car” and “solar panel” skyrocketed during the summer when gas prices reached bank account-draining levels, but dropped just as quickly as gas prices came down.
Similarly, the term “layaway” found a resurgence in popularity that coincided with the economic crisis.
You didn’t dive into anything.
All you did was re-post their zeitgeist page!
What a traffic monger!
Yeah, Billy’s right, I mean, just look at the top 10 fastest rising search terms:
4. tuenti
7. nasza klasa
8. wer kennt wen
Three local networking portals, which not too many people outside their countries heard of, are the most popular in the whole world. It’s a great material to investigate on, and learn of their success.
@Dariusz: agreed totally. lots can be learnt from the succcesses of these non-english sites.
Chad
http://www.myle...ingspace.com.au
O snap!
Intresting Youtube and facebook are almost every countries popular search word
…
based on top search words looks like Users using internet more as entertainment and socially connected engine then Jobs, business, knowledge based engine!
surprised to see katrina kaif in the most popular searche word from india!
chandra
http://www.myjil.com
Copy. Paste. Sub (meh). Upload. You probably spent more time on your invoice than the article. Sigh.
The graph comparing “solar panel” to “hybrid car” to “cfl” is misleading… cfl stands for both Compact Fluorescent Light and Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty
…And the Canadian Football League.
Here’s one I made a few months ago on Google Trends: FDIC (around when the bank runs were in full swing). Blog here: http://chrisco....h-trends-chart/ (includes chart, comments, links).
Never any surprises at the top? I was doing PR for Bebo when the 2006 Zeitgeist came out and even we were baffled about how we ended up #1.
The problem with these graphs is the easy and lazy “connections” that can be drawn: especially when people fail to really dive into the details. Sure, the crash in the DOW is a proximate cause for the increase in searches for layaway, but without doubt that’s not the reason that search spiked: in October, Kmart (and then its parent Sears) started running advertisements prominently featuring layaways, which had all but been forgotten by consumers:
http://www.nyti...ml?ref=magazine
Actually I appreciate the fact that he reposted the info. I dont have time to surf all the sites out there and track things…so to me this was very valuable.
Thanks for posting.
I dive into like Erick also
70% of searches are fame or celebrity orientated – roll on http://www.famebook.com – for endorsed, subjective content, search and social networking! Register now for updates!
Anyone else notice that you can’t draw a comparison because Google looks at the “Fastest Rising Search Terms” (ie, changes) while Yahoo! looks at “Top Search Terms” (ie, levels)?
They are measuring different things.
Great headline, empty article.
Lycos also released its top 2008 search terms today – and shows some interesting distinctions from the Google list, not to mention some eye-opening findings about Americans’ interests. Poker and Paris Hilton topped the list with Sara Palin at #5. The Economic Crisis surpassed the Presidential Election as the top news event. The Dark Knight beat out Ironman in the movie category. Clay Aiken topped Barack Obama and Heath Ledger among men. Anna Kournikova beat out Michael Phelps among athletes. And Perez Hilton reigned supreme among blogs, beating out Drudge and Huffington Post. The Lycos report is here: http://50.lycos.com/
What’s Lycos?
who the hell searches for facebook logins. seem to me like some wives and husband or employers are trying to hacking into someone facebook accounts.
Some people don’t know how to use bookmarks, so they google the login page.
Go Sarah go!
Another article focusing on the international lists:
http://www.pbs....oking-for/3799/
Whose Sarah Palin?
Obviously these lists have been edited, since “sex” is and always has been the #1 internet search since the invention of the internet.
CFL- Canadian Football League (Defunct?) , actually the first listing on Google for “CFL”.
I am very surprised: where is the word “sex” ? I have always been told that the forever most popular search on the web is sex. So what happened ? Did Google censor the results ? Did they cheat ? Did they manipulate the results. Did they simply make some statistical tricks to hide it ? I think that they used that last option.
Some more thorough analysis of these results here : http://harrysel...-and-google-2-2
Well, there is some diving into the search terms happening at my company. We’re diving more because we can, and we can also find out what people say about these Europeand social networks (e.g. http://www.attentio.com/blog/)
Yes, I posted for my company. I like them. They pay me.
Its interesting to see why ice cream would be in the list? Are they looking for recipies?