RSSMore Google users interested in cricket than iPhone, Paris Hilton
By Tim Conneally | Published December 17, 2007, 12:54 PM
If the world's interests can truly be encapsulated by the end-of-year Google Zeitgeist rankings, then perhaps it's time for the media to re-evaluate its priorities as British sports appear to outrank some American celebrities.
Since 2001, Google has been releasing lists of search trends and patterns culled from aggregate search data, which it calls Zeitgeist. Friday we got to see what everyone has been asking about all year.
Taking the number one spot is Nielsen's top-rated television program American Idol, despite the show's apparent rating slip this last season, and general ennui among some of the show's biggest fans.
Video sharing site YouTube took second place on the list, possibly thanks to the increased accessibility it saw this year. Think about that for a moment: Here is the site which actually contains a direct link to YouTube, and the #2 most popular search on that site is "YouTube." A usability study might be worth exploring here.
Still, there's a lot to be said for YouTube's gains this past year. Not only is it viewable on stationary machines, but now also on connected portable devices, such as Apple's iPhone -- which was coincidentally the fastest-growing global search of the year.
The rest of this year's list of most globally popular searches is dominated by celebrity figures of all sorts: tragic, comic, or just entertaining. In the comic department, pop star Britney Spears' head shaving incident garnered her third place, and hotel heiress Paris Hilton was eighth, thanks largely to her well-publicized jailing.
In the tragic, the deaths of professional wrestler Chris Benoit and pin-up girl Anna Nicole Smith were in fifth and seventh place respectively. Down the list, 19-year old High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens came in tenth.
A single non-American entertainment related query found its way into the top five this year. Australia's cricket world cup triumph in the West Indies this year was ranked all the way up at number four, more popular than the iPhone, more interesting than the situation in Iran.
Finally, queries related to potential gift items have dramatically risen at the end of this year, with Nintendo's Wii -- which kept a close second behind the Xbox 360 all year -- skyrocketing as holiday shoppers desperately try to locate one. Interest in Sony's PS3 has kept it in a steady third place in video game console searches this year.
In the high-definition market, HD DVD led in searches over competing format Blu-ray, and LCD TVs were more often queried than plasma screen TVs.
For the complete listing, visit Google's Zeitgeist site.
Cricket would have to be one of the world's most boring games apart from baseball, which is kind of an American version of the the same boring game. Its only value these days is in holding together what's left of the now defunct far east British Empire.
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|Hi Tim,
That was a pretty neat list. I have two insights to offer. First on Youtube. I presume, people would have keyed in things like 'Youtube video download' and not necessarily youtube.com. Another thing is that many layman users do not realize the difference between the address bar and the search on the Google toolbar. So it is possible that users wanting to visit youtube.com actually key it in there on the toolbar..
Another insight is with regard to Cricket. My opinion is that the surging numbers were because we had two World Cups held this year in cricket, one in March and another in September. And Cricket is most passionately followed in India which happened to win the second tournament in September. I believe the hysteria surrounding this win would have been the reason for cricket to rank so high in the list.
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|Well, given that there are more people on earth who watch cricket than baseball, rugby (american rugby, I mean) and basketball combined, is it such a shocker that Cricket features up there?!!
Knock, knock. The rest of the world is getting online!
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|No Microsoft error codes? I swear I thought I would change the stats this year.
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|Makes sense:
1. Personally, I Will NEVER own an iPhone, even if Steve Jobs himself serviced me... come to think of it, even less if he did.
2. & I wouldn't screw Paris Hilton with Paris Hilton's own d**k.
You know, i've had scads of cellphones + done tons of biatcches-- but i've never played cricket: that i gotta try.
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|Just a side-note:
When you say you've 'done tons of biatcches', while your posting comments on a site like BetaNews, you essentially, discredit yourself.
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|Always one in every crowd-- how does humor discredit me?
My sincere condolences if the bia***es don't flock to you... in fact, tell you what: i will make that a new year's plea on your behalf... to both the Good & the Far(sodomy) Sides
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|That's good to see.
More tea?
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