Bebo, Paris Hilton Lead Google Searches in '06
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.