Google Zeitgeist 2008

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.

Comments

to be fair

[PachmanP]

...sometimes it's easier to just go into google than to actually use the address bar. frist psot

Re:to be fair

[zmjjmz]

Most of the browsers released in 2008 will go to the site automatically if you type the name of the site (i.e. facebook or digg) automatically.

Re:to be fair

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, and it's also easier to go to Google and type in 'putty' (5 characters) then 'www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html' (57 characters).

Re:to be fair

[Hurricane78]

Never heard of keyword search?

To translate a word, I type Ctrl-L and then "dict someword" ENTER.
For Wikipedia I have "wiki sometopic" and "wikie sometopic" for the English Wikipedia.

Oh, I also use Yakuake, and I have a special button on my keyboard for it.
So for when Firefox is not running, I press that button, type "wiki sometopic" or "dict sometopic" and Firefox opens with that search.
Yakuake even automatically retracts when Firefox opens.

I have this for YouTube (yt=, btjunkie (bt), wikipedia (wiki, wikie), dict.leo.org (dict, dico), price comparison (preis), recipes (rezept), urban dictionary (ud), and others. I did not see the front pages of those sites for months or even years.

Re:to be fair

[crow]

Yes, particularly for two reasons:

1) It protects you from typos. If you miss a character, it's immediately obvious before you've helped out a typo squatter.

2) It often gives you options to select certain topics within a given site, allowing you to more easily navigate to the portion of the site you actually want.

Re:to be fair

[jlarocco]

To translate a word, I type Ctrl-L and then "dict someword" ENTER.
For Wikipedia I have "wiki sometopic" and "wikie sometopic" for the English Wikipedia.

You are nowhere near lazy enough. 'w' => Wikipedia, 'g' => Google search, "gi" => Google image search, 'f' => Flickr, 'd' => dictionary, ...

But yeah, shortcuts or keyword searches are the way to go.

Re:to be fair

[spintriae]

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."

Re:to be fair

[DeadPixels]

Agreed. It's a lot easier for me to hit ctrl+t, tab, enter, and type a site name than it is for me to mouse up to the address bar, select it all, delete it, and retype the address before hitting enter. Plus, Google's a lot more forgiving of typos than the address bar is...

Re:to be fair

[stonedcat]

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.

Re:to be fair

[Hal_Porter]

Most people arguing on the internet cite wikipedia so democratically they are correct and you are wrong.

Re:to be fair

[jlarocco]

What the fuck? Your reading comprehension is terrible. How the hell do you confuse "I have a shortcut to Wikipedia" with "I think Wikipedia is an authoritative source and use it exclusively when looking for information"? Did I say it was the only search I use? You're just making shit up.

It's so stupid I wouldn't even respond except some dimwit moderated your comment Insightful. WTF?

Re:to be fair

[Gordonjcp]

Firefox does this by... Googling what you typed into the address bar.

Re:to be fair

[rasputin465]

Actually, I've seen worse than this. I was at this bar attached to a hotel in Switzerland and they had a coin-operated Windoze machine. And old American guy (~70s) felt hip enough to surf the tubes, so he put in his coins, and upon login an IE browser window automatically popped up, full screen. My friend and I painfully watched him spend 10 minutes trying to find IE by going to Google and searching for "Internet Explorer". He even tried to download from one site and install it; when that didn't work he had to drag the bartender over and show him how to use this new-fangled device (bartender/IT? quite a CV).

Once he was on, he spent his time checking hotmail and his bank and stock accounts. But he was mindful of the security risks: when he was typing in passwords, he looked over his shoulder to make sure no one was watching.

Re:to be fair

[j-cloth]

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>

Re:to be fair

[dotancohen]

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.

I do the opposite for the mother in law. I don't want her typing in yahooo.com by mistake and getting malware. Google generally won't lead you that far astray.

Re:to be fair

[Kenz0r]

I actually think this contributed to those statistics google released, possibly in a major way.
I barely even bother with the www and the domain anymore.

Re:to be fair

[Metaphorically]

When the kids here want to go to facebook (or more likely runescape) on one of several computers in the house where it's not bookmarked, I've taught them to just google it - using the search box next to the address bar.

This is to prevent typos.

It applies doubly so to the flash game site of the week where neither they nor I am sure of the correct domain name.

Re:to be fair

[rubah]

I make fun of my friend regularly for googling things that are in his search bar search engines list.

he also googled google maps.

Re:to be fair

[lavardo]

i'm sure that works easier with peepz with only one arm, also.

fast risers

[tregeagle]

Its good to see so many non-english fast risers like, tuenti, wer kennt wen and nasza-klasa. Whatever they are...

Re:fast risers

[BluBrick]

They are all social networking sites. Spanish (tuenti - no translation available from Google), German (Wer-kennt-wen = who knows whom), and Polish(nasza klasa = Our class).

Apparently even foreigners use Google to find Facebook-y, MySpace-y, time-waste-y websites! Whodathunkit?

Re:fast risers

[digitig]

And it's sort of reassuring that a misspelling makes one of the UK top 10s. ("Eaton Mess" should be "Eton Mess")

Can't figure out the address bar?

[orkybash]

Probably more a combination of not remembering the domain extension ("was that wikipedia.com or wikipedia.org?"), combined with getting an annoying squatter 90% of the time if you get it wrong. And yes, I'm aware that in the above example both of them get you to where you need to go

Re:Can't figure out the address bar?

[oakgrove]

When the mistake drops down, highlight it and press shift+delete.

Re:Can't figure out the address bar?

[blurryrunner]

Or just use the arrows to select the entry and hit delete.

br/

Re:Can't figure out the address bar?

[OverlordQ]

Gotta love UI features like this where it doesn't tell you about them.

Re:Can't figure out the address bar?

[Fear the Clam]

Annoying Squatter. What you need when you need it.

And in 2008...

[Anonymous Coward]

...the submitter still hasn't grasped the "I'm feeling lucky" feature in the browser. Typing facebook in the adressbar in Firefox will use Googles "I'm feeling lucky" thing and take you facebook.com

Duh!

Efficient use of built-in features isn't stupid

[orbz]

I'd say nerds haven't grasped it, not average users. Now that you can leave www. and .com off your URLs, why wouldn't you? It saves time, provided it gets you to the right site - which most of these pseudoqueries will.

Google should edit their Zeitgeist lists, though

[orbz]

Really, what needs to happen nowadays is that Google should separate those "keywords" that exactly match the top-returned URL... then we'd have a better idea of what people are actually *searching* for, versus what they're just trying to access.

Google Trends

[yotto]

I've been doing a podcast based on the Google Trends, which the Zeitgeist is directly related to, for almost 1.5 years now and I must say, watching the trends weekly (and daily) is an interesting exercise. We actually go through and try to find why things were searched for, and while 90% of the terms are based on TV shows (Predominately Extreme Home Makeover and House), the few that are from other sources (xkcd pops up occasionally, as does Google's ever-changing logo) are where the fun lies. That, and the searches for stuff like "Hot Karl" and "Anal Fissures."

Re:Google Trends

[erlehmann]

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

"nasza klasa"

[NinthAgendaDotCom]

Ah yes, the distant cousin of Santa Clausa.

Re:Google should edit their Zeitgeist lists, thoug

[FlyingBishop]

Better yet, they could separate out the queries that are coming from Firefox URL bars instead of a search box. Is there any way to tell which is which on Google's end, or do they both use the same protocol? Would the fact that they jump straight to "I'm feeling lucky" be enough, or does the FF URL bar just do exactly what a user would do?

India

[rite_m]

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).

Re:India

[KanSer]

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

Sarah Palin?

[martin-boundary]

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...

The real search engine is just for backup

[Animats]

The front-end machines at Google have a set of canned replies for common queries. Most queries to Google are in fact answered by the first front-end machine reached, without invoking the main search engine at all. The size of the front-end cache is considered proprietary, but it's not huge.

Most queries just aren't very original.

Re:Zeitgeist.

[crhylove]

I don't think your invisible friend wants you trolling for flame wars.

Most of the research I did personally on religion long before I saw the movie corroborates his views almost exactly.

I think the movie "9/11 Mysteries" does a much better job than "Zeitgeist" in regards to section two, however.

As to section three, well, it's pure speculation, tacked on a little poorly at the end, kind of like your "Revelations". Though not done nearly as poorly as old John did those.

But it's good you know who not to talk to and then talk anyway. At least part of your cerebral cortex is still functioning, and you might actually LEARN something somewhere along the way.

Re:Google should edit their Zeitgeist lists, thoug

[FLEB]

They might be separating out queries. AFAIK, there's a "source=..." or the like attached to Firefox-UI searches, and the language on the Zeitgeist page says "our search team studied the aggregation of billions of search queries people typed in to the Google search box".