Google has continued in its zeitgeist tradition with the release of a year-end trend summary at http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2007/index.html.
The main page shows a listing for the fastest-growing search terms both in the US and across the world — the world list includes terms like second life and ebuddy while the US list includes heroes and transformers. (The iPhone is number one on both lists). There’s also a list of the fastest-dropping search terms, which includes such nonsurprises as sudoku.
Be sure to check out the tabs on the side of the main page so you can check out the most popular newsmakers. It leads with a chart of the presidential candidates with the most Googlesteam — Ron Paul wins the “greatest disparity between mainstream media coverage and Google search volume” award. (And no, that wasn’t an endorsement. Just an observation.) This tab also has listings for the most popular lawsuit-related searches and searches for deceased (or rumored deceased) people. And the other tabs? Oh, there’s a tab for showbiz queries, a tab that’s kind of a cultural/gadget smackdown, and a tab for the most popular in philosophical searching (All the way from what is love to what is gout.)
If you can’t stand that much geisty goodness in one big page, be sure to check out the archives, which go back to 2001 and offer trends in weekly or monthly doses. And if you’re wondering what people outside the US are searching for, check out the zeitgeist by country.
Categories: News