Google Zeitgeist '05

Garett Rogers writes "Google has just released their Google Zeitgeist 2005. From the site: 'It turns out that looking at the aggregation of billions of search queries people type into Google reveals something about our curiosity, our thirst for news, and perhaps even our desires. Considering all that has occurred in 2005, we thought it would be interesting to study just a few of the significant events, and names that make this a memorable year. (We'll leave it to the historians to determine which ones are lasting and which ephemeral.) We hope you enjoy this selective view of our collective year.'"

Comments

Janet Jackson

[CWRUisTakingMyMoney]

Am I missing something? What is Janet Jackson doing at the top of the search list?

Re:Janet Jackson

[valrog77]

A little incident at the Super Bowl maybe?

Re:Janet Jackson

[CriminalNerd]

It is most likely because of the "boobie" incident where everybody saw Janet Jackson's boobies at the Super Bowl.

Re:Janet Jackson

[14erCleaner]

Am I missing something? What is Janet Jackson doing at the top of the search list?

That's the top Google news search, not the top search overall. But really, the Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction was in 2004...

Re:Janet Jackson

[SpaceLifeForm]

Your TV needs cleaning, or your glasses, for you were certainly seeing double.

Re:Janet Jackson

[vandon]

You know what I'd like to see? Where's the top 10 search keywords for Google Images?

And so I don't have to ask again, Where are the top 10 search keywords for Google Images for people with SafeSearch turned off?

Re:Janet Jackson

[xaque]

Why? Are you running out of ideas?

Re:Janet Jackson

[vandon]

Why? Are you running out of ideas?

No, I just might not be using the best ones ;)

Re:Janet Jackson

[timeOday]

Yup, and with the following list if top "news" searches, we can now conclusively conclude the actual levels of interest in such trifling issues as the war, energy policy, and whether the US is still governed by the rule of law:

1. Janet Jackson
2. Hurricane Katrina
3. tsunami
4. xbox 360
5. Brad Pitt
6. Michael Jackson
7. American Idol
8. Britney Spears
9. Angelina Jolie
10. Harry Potter

Re:Janet Jackson

[xaque]

Here's a hint: "Condoleeza Rice".

Re:Janet Jackson

[controlguy]

Some children are fascinated with breasts, along with some adults.

Which I guess explains why didn't they put up the statistics for Google Image search.

Not enough info

[NotQuiteReal]

A raw "top 10" list doesn't really give any sense of the scale of the numbers that determine the list.

Position 1 could be orders of magnitude more searched for than position 2.

On the other hand, position 1000 could have nearly as many searches as position 10...

Re:Not enough info

[Surye]

Which is why I found those graphs really interesting. And I love the key date markers to give them reference.

Re:Not enough info

[pHatidic]

While I don't disagree with the need for more numbers, I do think that their zeitgeist page is extremely well designed. Whoever did the webdesign on this one should get some options :)

Re:Not enough info

[s4ck]

yeah! google rulez. looks awesome. simplicity is the new complex.

Re:Not enough info

[Mortlath]

Was I the only one to notice that some of the image ALT tags didn't match?

For example, the world affairs section had ALT tags saying "Star Wars" and "Harry Potter".

Re:Not enough info

[dancallaghan]

Lots of pretty graphics maybe, but it's nothing fantastic -- the stylesheet specifies the font size in terms of pixels, but then tags (come on people, it's not 1995!) are used to specific a relative size, so Firefox ends up rendering the text unbearably small on my system. The layout is also based on a fixed pixel width and doesn't work with your window less than ~1000 pixels.

Fluctuations

[m85476585]

What are all the fluctuations in the graph? It is especially noticeable for Wikipedia. It looks like there are about 52 peaks per year. I wonder if there is more traffic to Google on weekends or during the week?

Re:Fluctuations

[CastrTroy]

Yes, if they just took their numbers and plotted a single data point for each week, with the sum, instead of putting a datapoint for each day, it would solve most of their problems. A neat thing that this shows, is that most of the searches are done during the week, when we are working. Does this lead us to believe that people really do spend all their time at work, just browsing the internet?

Re:Fluctuations

[sp0rk173]

It's pseudo-diurnal oscilation. In a time series graph of most natural phenomena you see it. "Day time" behavior differs from "nigh time" behavior, that's all. If it really is about 52 peaks per year, then i would say the "Day time" of google is the weekend and the "night time" is the work week. Of course, to be absoultely sure you'd have to see the units on the x axis.

where is....

[B3AST!]

porn?? that's should top the list...i search for that hundreds of thousands of times a day, i don't think i'm alone...i think this is RIGGED!!!

Firefox

[m85476585]

Firefox isn't there at all! What about the release of Firefox 1.5?

Re:Firefox

[Surt]

Well, surely you'd agree that as a simple mathematical problem, the set of users who would consider bothering to upgrade to firefox at all, much less firefox 1.5 is a proper subset of the set of users who would search for janet jackson's nipples.

How Do You Take Your Star Wars?

[Chaffar]

Star Wars Movie Vs. Star Wars Video Game Vs. Star Wars DVD

I think they forgot Star_Wars_Bootleg.torrent...

Hilarious

[CriminalNerd]

I bet some of the terms will stay in the top 10 because idiots like me didn't know what baidu, Ares and orkut meant and looked them up on Google.

Re:Hilarious

[TubeSteak]

http://www.google.com/search?q=Orkut
http://www.google.com/search?q=Ares
http://www.google.com/search?q=Baidu

And for good measure:
http://www.google.com/search?q=zeitgeist
Answer.com - The general moral, intellectual, and cultural climate of an era; Zeitgeist is German for "time-spirit."

Interesting

[evil agent]

It looks like the BBC consistently gets way more queries than CNN. This might explain the world's perception of the U.S.

commence flame war...

Re:Interesting

[kietscia]

I guess more people would like to get their information from a more objective source of news rather than the American media which has been blackmailed, threatened, cajoled, etc. from actually questioning the policies and actions of the US government.

Re:Interesting

[susano_otter]

Last time I checked, it was the media's responsibility to report the news, and your responsibility to question government policies. Are you so lazy as to want the reporters to do your job for you? Are you so foolish as to think that the media can be trusted to discharge your responsibilities better than you can yourself?

Plus, how can a news source be simultaneously objective and questioning policy?

Plus, what makes you think that the BBC is immune from whatever market forces, black-hearted corruption, or government pressure you believe plagues CNN?

Plus, it's not like the current government administration (whether in the U.S. or in Great Britain) is the only faction with a vested interest in manipulating the media. Have you considered the possibility that the BBC is just as biased as CNN, only you don't notice because it's your own faction controlling the BBC?

We can't really get into your proof of these allegations (that the U.S. government is pressuring the U.S. media to run biased coverage) since, presumably, you'd simply point out that now that they control the media, they're hiding the proof, too!

Re:Interesting

[evil agent]

You mean at the whim of the New York Times. Why would the government want to release it now? It overshadowed one of the greatest news stories for them: the successful Iraqi elections.

Re:Interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

Last time I checked, it was the media's responsibility to report the news, and your responsibility to question government policies. Are you so lazy as to want the reporters to do your job for you? Are you so foolish as to think that the media can be trusted to discharge your responsibilities better than you can yourself?

It is the media's job to report when experts disagree with Government policy. BBC does this, CNN doesn't do so as often. Fox rarely does this at all.

Plus, how can a news source be simultaneously objective and questioning policy?

Look at a BBC news report. They will state something like: Expert A disagrees with Policy X, stating that it will have dire consequences for Issue Y. However, Expert B disagrees, stating it will dramatically improve Factor Z.

Plus, what makes you think that the BBC is immune from whatever market forces, black-hearted corruption, or government pressure you believe plagues CNN?

The BBC is independent of the Government and any corporate influence. If the BBC misreports something, there is an inquiry. If they accept money for a report, heads roll. The BBC's independent nature is what allows it to be impartial.

We can't really get into your proof of these allegations (that the U.S. government is pressuring the U.S. media to run biased coverage) since, presumably, you'd simply point out that now that they control the media, they're hiding the proof, too!

I doubt the US Government is directly influencing the media, however US media has a reputation for chest-thumping "patriotism" (earning CNN the moniker of "the Combat News Network"). Look at the run-up to the Iraq war. While news outlets around the world were doubting the existence of WMD in Iraq, and quoting experts that stated they didn't exist, most US media outlets were extolling the virtues of invading Iraq. It was truly appalling. Even the New York Times, which is usually as unbiased as the BBC, was reporting WMDs as fact. I don't know if this is due to consumer pressure, corporate pressure, Government pressure, or simply nationalistic short-sightedness, but it disgusted people around the world.

They need to dig a little deeper

[SlashAmpersand]

Steve Ballmer's top search: 1. Chair Aerodynamics

All the Apple items!

[dcarey]

Bah I've got karma to burn, do your worst, but ... LOOK at all the apple products on that list! 5 in total! Sure they're all ipod related (even itunes) but to me that's pretty cool. Unless you're still adament about not getting an ipod because somehow OGG is better for your precious ears ;) ....

Top Search... The Other Jackson?

[OctoberSky]

How in the hell is Janet Jackson the top search? I understand everyone wants to see her nipple but that was in 2004... the begining of 2004 (February 1, 2004). Get over it.

I could understand Micheal Jackson for his strangeness. The man is like a walking car accident, we have to look. But the top search being Janet is insane.

The Internet is the Holy Grail of nudity, searching for one womans half covered nipple is really cuddling the complex nature of Googles Algorithm. Make your searches interesting, like "Bea Arthur humping a Camel" or "Shannon Doherty doing coke off a dead hookers butt" Make the people at Google work.

Re:Top Search... The Other Jackson?

[Surt]

It's important to include the relevant google links for your searches:

http://www.google.com/search?q=Bea+Arthur+humping+ a+Camel&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a &rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official
(and the top hit):
http://www.shanmonster.com/archives/searchterms.ht ml

http://www.google.com/search?q=Shannon+Doherty+doi ng+coke+off+a+dead+hookers+butt&start=0&ie=utf-8&o e=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:off icial
(and the top hit):
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00003CY67/002-33 64891-9190430?v=glance&vi=quotes-trivia&n=130
(of course, google thinks maybe you meant: Shannon Doherty doing coke of a dead hookers butt
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&hs=EoT&safe=off &client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q =Shannon+Doherty+doing+coke+of+a+dead+hookers+butt &spell=1
(for which the top hit is the same)

Maybe you meant to include the quotes, in which case:
Your search - "Bea Arthur humping a Camel" - did not match any documents.
(yet, i'm sure their index of slashdot will pull it up soon)

also no luck with
Your search - "Shannon Doherty doing coke off a dead hookers butt" - did not match any documents.
same result for 'of'

All in all, the bea arthur hits are more interestingly relevant than you might expect.

Here's an idea

[CastrTroy]

I think we should start a distributed computing project to get weird searches on next years list. Stuff like "How do I join al qaeda" or "What is 1+1" or "HEIRHENO#*(_#()*_#". It would be interesting to see how many searches would need to be done to take down the searches.

WMD search dieoff

[AuMatar]

Apparently even the mighty Google couldn't find these things.

American boobs

[Eternal Vigilance]

We'll know things have turned around when instead of "Janet Jackson" the top searches include "25th Amendment" and "impeachment."

ZZZ... Try Metaspy

[Johnboi Waltune]

For a more real-time view of what people are searching for, try Metaspy. It shows you what the last 10 search strings at Metacrawler were. There was nothing really suprising in the Google Zeitgiest report, but the stuff you'll see people searching for on Metaspy can really make you do a double-take.

Of course the morst important bit...

[Stan Vassilev]

.. for us webdevs is missing again (for a second or third year) - the browser stats :((

also I see less and less in each issue of the Zeitgeist (I suppose as they figure out that more and more of the info is pretty valuable to be released for free)

Missing log day

[LiquidCoooled]

All (ok, 99% of) the displayed charts have a 0 dip around April time (just around the time of the popes death)

Did anyone else notice this and wonder just what happened at the data centre that day?

Re:Missing log day

[king-manic]

All (ok, 99% of) the displayed charts have a 0 dip around April time (just around the time of the popes death)

Did anyone else notice this and wonder just what happened at the data centre that day?

Catholics aroudn the world stopped masterbating to porn on that day. Leading to a huge drop in internet usage :)

Star Wars vs Harry Potter

[Marc_Hawke]

Is it a mistake in the legend, or is there some other force at work?

Look at the StarWars Movie vs DVD search. The DVD peakes when the movie is released and vice-versa.

Now look at Harry Potter right after it. The peaks coincide with their respective releases.

I'm guessing the chart is just messed...which is really too bad, because I thought the reversal was more interesting.

Are they kidding?

[eander315]

The big winners appear to be the Jackson family and Apple music players. What a curious and informed society we live in.

After I'm dead,

[quokkapox]

The people that read through my Google search history are really going to wonder why those two phrases appear together on an otherwise innocent, idle Tuesday afternoon.

Re:Top search engine name searches

[msbmsb]

I tried that, then I hit "I feel lucky."

That doesn't seem to do anything for me, just clears the search box...

Re:Orkut?

[billy reuben]

Orkut's very popular in Brazil. It started when the Brazilian membership numbers quickly took off during the early days of Orkut. Now Brasilieros are the dominant present on that website. Last time I checked a few weeks ago, Brazilians comprised about 3/4 of orkut's membership. The end result for you is that if you get an Orkut account, it's likely you'll be inundated with friend-requests from Brazilian twenty-somethings. If you're looking to practice conversational Portuguese, orkut.com's the place.

Re:Something odd about the graphs. . .

[DaveLV]

A lot of people have high speed internet at work even though they don't at home. I'd bet the spikes are related to people browsing at work Monday-Thursday, then people browsing RATHER than working on Friday, then a drop off for Saturday and Sunday.

Re:Top search engine name searches

[GigsVT]

If you are really interested in more information, sign up for an Adsense advertisers account (free), which will give you unlimited statistics on any particular search term.

After all you need to know what sorts of traffic levels which keywords will generate.

Does Metaspy work?

[grouse]

"Sorry, Metaspy returned no results at this time."