RSSBebo, Paris Hilton Lead Google Searches in '06
By Ed Oswald | Published December 19, 2006, 1:40 PM
The end of the year is approaching, and that means its time for Google's yearly look at what we've all been searching for. Topping that list were two social networking sites, and a appetite for news on the ever-controversial Paris Hilton.
Google's annual zeitgeist, which is a snapshot of trends observed through its users' search patterns, showed the increasing influence of social media. The two top searches during the year were Bebo and MySpace in first and second, both social networking sites.
Following that were several other forms of social media, including social video site Metacafe at #4, and Wikipedia and wikis at #6 and #10 respectively. The popularity of social networking even beat out searches for the World Cup, the worldwide soccer tournament.
On the news side, searchers most commonly looked for news on Paris Hilton or Orlando Bloom. Hurricane Katrina, although happening nearly a year and a half ago, still came in at #5 on the top news searches.
In asking questions, we most commonly asked Google who Borat is (comedian Sacha Baron Cohen), what or who is Hezbollah (the "party of god," who campaigns for an Islamic state in Lebanon and eradication of Israel), how to refinance, and to define the word "promisicuous."
Among current events, Iraq generated more queries than Iran or North Korea, and possible Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama saw a spike in queries in October following rumors of his entry into the 2008 race.
The Duke Lacrosse rape scandal generated three of the top five queres of national controversies, and searchers queried where Togo was, a small country in Western Africa.
Nicole Kidman's marriage to country singer Keith Urban led searches for weddings; Paul McCartney's tumultuous separation from Heather Mills led queries on divorces; The Price is Right host Bob Barker led searches for retirements; and TV mogul Aaron Spelling's passing in June led searches for obituaries.
In entertainment, the most popular searches for tickets were for Disney music group the Cheetah Girls, even beating out searches for New York Mets playoff tickets.
A more in depth look at the zeitgeist can be accessed from the Google website.
I heard "Hollywood_ Simpleton" was also close to the top of the list.
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|I guess we will see Britney Spears close to Paris Hilton on the list since they are tag team now. My god I can't believe people are searching for this "subject".
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http://www.greenday-central.com
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|I thought "failure" should have been on the list... I guess people already know what the result is so don't bother. Glad Google still agree.
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|Bebo Schmebo. God, people are stupid. They have to do a "search" to find these things? Good grief.
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|I heard "PS3 fires" and "Blu-Ray failure" were among the top searches.
www.thedvdwars.com
www.nexgenwars.com
www.thelookandsoundofperfect.com
www.gamesytemwars.com
*the mark of a true Hollywood post.
All of the shadow Hollywoods will now have to put these links on every post if they want to be me.
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|Any links to your PS3 fires and Blu-Ray failures? Or are you talking out your @rse again?
The only PS3 fire I know of, the lame fanboy, in true Hollywood_ fashion, made it up, and got sued by Sony... LOL...
The only Blu-Ray failures I know of, are a couple of lame videos on YouTube, showing nothing to substantiate a Blu-Ray failure...
Seems your just a lame fanboy, trying to influence people's buying decision...
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|Porn search, Paris Hilton search what's the difference?
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|One is not necessarily looking for something trashy. ;)
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|Hooray for Paris Hilton. It's nice to see someone achieve fame and fortune despite her Down's syndrome.
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|lmao...
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|Downs.........classic
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|You are referring to her underwear, presumably?
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|Its a conspiracy, they are trying to make everyone lookup "Bebo" ;-)
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|Okay, now, am I really *that* out of touch?
What the hell is a "Bebo"?
..and I've never heard of a "metacafe".
Must just be getting old and set in my ways.
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|I'm right there with ya. "Kids these days" don't even know the meaning of "promiscuous"?
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|NPR.org, Betanews.com and Reuters are my bookmarks. If its not listened on one of those sites, it's not news.
Social Networking is for little prissy people who can't pick-up women. No wonder it's turning into a multi-billion dollar industry. More promisicuous women for me!
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|it says right there what Bebo is: The two top searches during the year were Bebo and MySpace in first and second, both social networking sites.
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|or maybe they were looking for lyrics for the song "promiscuous"
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|and to define the word "promisicuous."
means:
Google search:
define: promiscuous
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|Im right along with you. Ive never heard of those either.
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|"The site has over 22,000,000 registered members. It is estimated that about 5 people register every second[1] (although a much smaller number of members are regularly active on the website). Bebo is the 340th most popular English language website, according to Alexa Internet, and the second most popular in Ireland according to the Irish Independent (17th in the UK).[2] In the US, Bebo was the fastest growing social networking site in June 2006 according to Hitwise, Inc.[3]"
From Wikipedia.
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|Perfect example, I wasn't aware there was a song.
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