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

[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

[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

[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

[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

[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

[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.

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.

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 ?

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.