Google releases Zeitgeist 2008
The offical Google blog this week announced the release of what has become a regular event in the Google calendar - the release of Google Zeitgeist. In it Google makes known the most popular searches of the year, and informs its public what are the hottest topics Google users have been typing into its search engine in 2008.It's only a partial picture of what's on our minds, however, because subjects pertaining to pornography and gambling have been framed out of the image.
"Zeitgeist means 'the spirit of the times,' and we strive to capture this spirit through exploring the year's new and exciting search terms," a Google spokesperson explained. "Searches for adult keywords are pretty constant, and although they may be popular, we don't think they define the Zeitgeist for any one year. We apply the same kinds of filters to the Zeitgeist that we use for SafeSearch, so no adult keywords are included. We have also removed duplicate entries, including misspellings. Additionally, we remove any spammy results."
Nonetheless, there's still something to be learned from Google searches, as the company has shown through Google Flu Trends, which correlates searches about flu symptoms to the incidence of the flu in the U.S. populace.
The fastest rising searches globally for this year were:
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
In the UK. the top 10 sites were:
1. facebook
2. bbc
3. youtube
4. ebay
5. games
6. news
7. hotmail
8. bebo
9. yahoo
10. jobs
No surprise to see Facebook at number one; its growth this year has been phenomenal, with the site currently having over 100m users, more than its rival, MySpace.
Also interesting to see Hotmail in there: web based email is one of the few areas where Microsoft leads Google on the web. It will be interesting to see how long this continues, what with the onward march of Gmail.
To see the full international Google Zeitgeist 2008 list go here.
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