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Google Reveals Popular Search Patterns

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the now-thats-interesting-stuff dept.

danec writes "Google has finally put up a page showing off its popular searches. Called the Google Zeitgeist (meaning: the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era) it will be updated monthly, weekly or even daily as circumstances warrant." This is actually a lot more then just a "Top 10 List" and I hope they update it frequently. I especially like how they compare searches for related words (Aimster/Napster in this edition). It would be fun to do the same for politicians during elections, or movies competing for the same blockbuster release date. You can do fascinating stuff with the amount of data Google has.

9 of 266 comments (clear)

  1. Shakespear in most mispelt list by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4

    How can Google be sure? He spelt his name differently from time to time himself.

  2. Obvious omission... by Masem · · Score: 4
    They need a "Top X 'Naked Pictures' Celebrity Queries".

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  3. Re:Who? What? Huh? by Jethro73 · · Score: 4

    Because not every person searching is from the states. I know that "Loft Story" is a French reality TV show... You can see a picture of the winner here. She's pretty cute...

    Anyway, that might explain...

    Jethro

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  4. Top 10 misspelled... by morie · · Score: 4

    ... /. articles would be interesting as well

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  5. Re:Ongoing abuse of the German language? by sql*kitten · · Score: 5
    I wonder why so many people "borrow" words from the German language these days

    It's like "doppelganger". Why do Germans have a word for that? Does it happen a lot over there? Really, I'm curious.

  6. Adult searches rank so low? by Tet · · Score: 5

    To be honest, the only thing that really surprised me there was how small a percentage of queries were adult related. Wasn't that get rich quick porn guy telling us only the other day on slashdot that adult searches dominated the rankings?

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  7. Re:Ongoing abuse of the German language? by Moofie · · Score: 5

    Let's go ahead and put Japanese on the list of "bastard" languages that "steal" from others.

    Somebody will have to draw me a diagram here as to how adopting a foreign language word somehow diminish the parent language. Must be something like software "piracy".

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  8. Re:What should we do oh great Avatar of Wisdom? by Tackhead · · Score: 5
    > Most people *don't* advance, that's the problem, and that's why ephermal pop-culture crap will always dominate the the Top Ten rising category and then go into the Top Ten declining spot when the fad has fizzled.

    So you geeks in high school or college that want a social life -- all you have to do is find the "rising top 10", click on a few, eliminate the ones that aren't part of your culture (e.g. French Big Brother), and voila, you're on top of the trends.

    Best yet, you can say "Naah, I gave that up, it's so over" when you see 'em on the declining top-10.

    The first few times, it'll be passed off as coincidence. Two or three big fads later, and all the "cool people" at school will forever wonder how the hell you always seem to know what's trendy before they do.

    Once the whole school is following your lead as Supreme Arbiter Of Cool, fuck with their heads. Start a Tux-The-Penguin tattooing craze, for instance...

  9. Panicking Reactions Meet Net Instant Gratification by rizzo242 · · Score: 5

    Zeitgeist n. (zeit-geist): the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era.

    1. "OMG, Wimbledon is on! I wonder if somebody's tits have ever fallen out during a match?"

    2. "OMG, Paula Poundstone NO!! You're too funny to get stinky fingers from bubblegummers! Somebody please tell me it's not true!"

    3. "OMG, Jack Lemmon died!!!!! But, but...but he's not supposed to be DEAD! I bet I can find him still alive somewhere online."

    4. "OMG, I was going to fly out to meet Mr. goatse.cx! Surely the strike is over by now!?"

    5. "OMG, I bet if I searched for Barbara Schett she would have sex with me!"

    6. "OMG, Napster was shut down, wasn't it? Or was it! I want the new N-Sync single 'I wanna do it in your butt' on mp3!!! Where the hell is Napster???"

    7. "OMG, I love catch phrases sooooooo much!!!!"

    8. "OMG, people are racing bicycles again!!! There's no time for annual sales reports or gay pr0n when people are racing BICYCLES through le French countryside! C'est bon!"

    9. "OMG, I like basketball and I've inexplicably found cause to use Google for my search engine. I'm sure glad my nerdy friend told me why it's supposed to be better than AOL's Internet, but I sure do miss all the pr0n...anyway, maybe they'll finally draft me into the NBA if I look it up online. I coulda made it..."

    10. "OMG, Vicky Botwright is so awesome!!! Maybe she'll sleep with me if I look her up on the Internet. It is TOO a real sport, asshole! Squash has been around for EVER! PBBBBHT!!!!!"


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