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Google Zeitgeist 2008

Posted by Soulskill on from the who-googles-the-googlers dept.

bahstid writes "As the year comes to a close, it's time to look at the big events, memorable moments and emerging trends that captivated us in 2008. As it happens, studying the aggregation of the billions of search queries that people type into the Google search box gives us a glimpse into the zeitgeist — the spirit of the times. While the global aggregated results are what one might expect, the breakdown by country is filled with 'hotmail,' 'yahoo' and 'facebook,' indicating that in 2008 your average user still hasn't quite grasped this address bar thing." This year's focus on the US presidential election and the economic crisis made for some interesting trends. It also seems that many Americans frequently checked their Facebook profile while watching American Idol and wondering who Sarah Palin was.

7 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. India by rite_m · · Score: 5, Funny
    My countrymen are confused. The top ten how-to lists has most people trying to figure out "how to reduce weight" (#1) while some are trying to find "how to gain weight" (#6). Men are trying "to impress a girl" (#9), while women are trying "to get pregnant" (#4).

    And everyone else wants to learn to play guitar, learn english, create a website, make money and kiss (in no particular order).

    1. Re:India by KanSer · · Score: 3, Funny

      Allow me to alleviate their confusion, I can help with #4!

      --
      • MOD PARENT UP by Anonymous Coward Wednesday April 20, @4:20
  2. Re:to be fair by spintriae · · Score: 5, Funny

    You use Google to find Yahoo? "Yo dawg, I heard you like searching so I put a search engine in your search engine so you can search while you search."

  3. Sarah Palin? by martin-boundary · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm not American, you insensitive clod! The first time I heard about Sarah Palin was in a spam email, and I still think Jenna's more talented...

  4. Re:to be fair by stonedcat · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sadly my boss still types full site urls into the text input box on google... trying to convince him to use the address bar has repeatedly failed.

    --
    You can't take the sky from me.
  5. Re:to be fair by j-cloth · · Score: 5, Funny


    Actually, once you've typed 'putty' into google, there's no need to subsequently type 'www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html'
    </nazi>

  6. Re:Google Trends by erlehmann · · Score: 3, Funny

    So can you explain the great anal fisting surge of 2006 ?