11 December 2008
The end of the year is a time of reflection - even for search engines, as Google's latest Zeitgeist proves yet again. The search giant has put 2008's most popular search terms in the eager hands of the masses, including global and national compilations. Each ten point list provides an insight into what events have captured the hearts of individual countries and which search terms have maintained universal success.
Google's posted list of the worldwide statistics for fastest rising search terms show Alaska state governor and Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin as the most popular rising search term in the world, with other global news and events such as the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008, the death of Heath Ledger and presidential campaign of Barack Obama also making it into the top 10.
The list showed that it isn't only English terms making the biggest impact on Google stats - social networking sites are proving popular in many countries as the inclusion of Spanish network Tuenti and German Friends Reunited, Wer Kennt Wen, hitting the charts. International hit Facebook also ranked highly within rising search terms in third position.
Google has described the results as an insight into what trends and events mesmerised us during the last year. "Studying the aggregation of the billions of search queries that people type into the Google search box gives us a glimpse into the zeitgeist - the spirit of the times."
It is this glimpse into the past that will allow people to reflect more comprehensively on the year. After all, events and moments that strike us are often felt more significantly once we learn how much they affect other people as well. It's also interesting to see how some events and trends that may seem country-specific have infiltrated into becoming topics of global interest.
Going into country-specific sections, this bigmouth had a glance at what most intrigued Brits over the last 12 months. News and social networking sites like the BBC, Facebook and Bebo took top spots, while new media products like the BBC iPlayer and Apple's iPhone placed high on the fastest rising search terms - as did controversial global issues like the fight for presidency by Barack Obama and supposed doomsday device, the Large Hadron Collider (which, incidentally, didn't kill us all when it was switched on a few months ago).
It's been a pretty big year, all things considered - not least for digital marketing - but who'd have thought that the most searched for recipe in the UK would be cupcakes?
Google Zeitgeist - the spirit of 2008
The end of the year is a time of reflection - even for search engines, as Google's latest Zeitgeist proves yet again. The search giant has put 2008's most popular search terms in the eager hands of the masses, including global and national compilations. Each ten point list provides an insight into what events have captured the hearts of individual countries and which search terms have maintained universal success.Google's posted list of the worldwide statistics for fastest rising search terms show Alaska state governor and Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin as the most popular rising search term in the world, with other global news and events such as the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008, the death of Heath Ledger and presidential campaign of Barack Obama also making it into the top 10.
The list showed that it isn't only English terms making the biggest impact on Google stats - social networking sites are proving popular in many countries as the inclusion of Spanish network Tuenti and German Friends Reunited, Wer Kennt Wen, hitting the charts. International hit Facebook also ranked highly within rising search terms in third position.
Google has described the results as an insight into what trends and events mesmerised us during the last year. "Studying the aggregation of the billions of search queries that people type into the Google search box gives us a glimpse into the zeitgeist - the spirit of the times."
It is this glimpse into the past that will allow people to reflect more comprehensively on the year. After all, events and moments that strike us are often felt more significantly once we learn how much they affect other people as well. It's also interesting to see how some events and trends that may seem country-specific have infiltrated into becoming topics of global interest.
Going into country-specific sections, this bigmouth had a glance at what most intrigued Brits over the last 12 months. News and social networking sites like the BBC, Facebook and Bebo took top spots, while new media products like the BBC iPlayer and Apple's iPhone placed high on the fastest rising search terms - as did controversial global issues like the fight for presidency by Barack Obama and supposed doomsday device, the Large Hadron Collider (which, incidentally, didn't kill us all when it was switched on a few months ago).
It's been a pretty big year, all things considered - not least for digital marketing - but who'd have thought that the most searched for recipe in the UK would be cupcakes?
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