Ever since the year 2000, Google has made a list of the hottest search trends. This list, known as the Google Zeitgeist, tries to capture the mood of the year by showing what we were most curious about.The word Zeitgeist comes from German and means "spirit of the times" (or "time-ghost" if you're very literal.)
There are a few important things to note about the Zeitgeist list on Google. It's not a measure of actual search volume. Not only does Google consider that to be a bit of a secret, it's not something that would be super helpful. Searches on many topics remain pretty constant, so the Zeitgeist only measures the searches that have made noteworthy rises in popularity for the year.
I'm surprised to find that the Japanese earthquake and tsunami did not garner more interest in the US, although TEPCO, the company who owned the damaged and leaking Fukushima nuclear power complex did make the global search list.
This year Google also spiced up their Zeitgeist with visuals, graphs, and lots of different categories. The top ten list for the USA included:
- Rebecca Black
This thirteen year old became a one-hit-wonder on the pop charts after the accidental success of her YouTube video for the song "Friday." The video was also the number one most watched video on YouTube's 2011 rankings. - Google Plus
Google+ was a social networking effort launched by Google in 2011. The service achieved much more success than previous Google social marketing efforts like Orkut and Google Buzz. - Hurricane Irene
This hurricane hit the US East Coast in August of 2011. - Pinterest
Pinterest launched their visual bookmarking app, and the invitation-only beta service became a quick sensation. - Ryan Dunn
Ryan Dunn was a reality TV star (most noted for appearing in Jackass movies), and he died in an alcohol-related single car accident hours after posting photos of himself drinking to Twitter. - iPhone 5
This rumored phone was highly anticipated but turned out to not exist. Apple is notoriously stingy on spoilers for their product releases, and they introduced the iPhone 4S instead. - Casey Anthony
Casey Anthony was accused and acquitted of the murder of her child in a highly publicized trial in Florida. - Adele
Adele is a London-born singer who released her album 21 in 2011 featuring the hit single "Rolling in the Deep." - Osama Bin Laden
This leader of the terrorist group Al Qaeda was killed by American forces in 2011. - Steve Jobs
The co-founder of Apple Computer died in 2011 after a long battle with cancer. He'd been on medical leave from Apple, but he'd only officially stepped down from leadership a few weeks before his passing.
The US also saw a large number of political scandals this year. Google listed Fox News Scandal twice, so either it's really juicy, or this is the Google Zeitgeist scandal.
- Murdoch Scandal
- Weiner Scandal
- Rick Santorum Scandal (I recommend treading very carefully when you Google his name.)
- Berlusconi Scandal
- Vitter Scandal
- Gingrich Scandal
- Tailhook Scandal
- Barney Frank Scandal
- Fox News Scandal
- Fox News Scandal
The fasted rising searches for the world in 2011 were:
- Rebecca Black
- Google Plus
- Ryan Dunn
- Casey Anthony
- Battlefield 3
- iPhone 5
- Adele
- TEPSCO
- Steve Jobs
- iPad 2
Also worth noting were the things we lost interest in searching. You'll note that most of these results are social networks and websites. The global fastest falling results were:
- MySpace
- Hi5
- Mebo
- Nasza Klasa
- Netlog
- Baidu
- Wer Kennt Wen
- Meinvz
- Hotmail Correo
- Delta Airlines
