Every year…or at least in the past two, the geeks (I use the term quite affectionately since I am one) at Google have posted their year-end list of most popular searches. You can check the lists here. It’s particularly interesting how the searches have been categorized between years…of course, this takes into account the internal changes at Google as well. And although I’ve always been a great supporter of the search engine, my suspicious brain goes into action when I notice that this year’s top search is for myspace.com and last year’s most popular search term was Britney Spears. Even if hits are not paid for, rather “searchability” for particular terms, why are people using a URL as a search term? Especially since all browsers have a built-in search engines (not to mention personalised search bars)? I’ll let you all draw the conclusions. Now, on to some trashy fun:
Top News Search for 2005?
Janet Jackson. Not her breast, just her. I wonder if Miss Jackson, If You’re Nasty googles herself?
Top News Search for 2004?
Unfortunately, here, it’s been categorised even further. But here are the results:
Country: France
Sports: David Beckham
Public Figures: George W. Bush
News Outlet: CNN
Top Company: SCO
In Remembrance: Nicolas Berg (followed by Christopher Reeve and Spalding Gray)
What’s even more fascinating is the international searches…and of course, in order to maintain my worldly reputation, here’s some of the top international searches for 2005. I find them a hoot!
| Italy: Miss Italia | Australia: Paris Hilton | France: fnac (the french version of Amazon…avec livres. | Ireland: rte (Irish public service tv and radio). |
| Israel: Rosh Hashanah | Japan: typhoon | Russia: furniture |
Oh, and on an interesting note, the top search term in the UK was “mayo clinic diet.” Hmmm…
Playing: The Captain & Tennille – Love, Will Keep Us Together