Top Global Searches For 2008 (Google Zeitgeist)

Google has released the 2008 year-end Zeitgeist (the spirit of the times). As the year comes to a close, a compilation of the highlights from Google searches around the world has revealed some interesting results. From the most popular searches to the fastest rising searches, you will be surprised to know that the number one fastest rising search term for 2008 was none other than Sarah Palin. So she did win after all:) As runner-ups we have; beijing 2008, facebook login and tuenti (never heard about this before). The Methodology by Google:

In compiling the 2008 Year-End Zeitgeist, our search team studied the aggregation of billions of search queries people typed in to the Google search box. Except
where noted, all of these search terms are most popular for 2008. All of the search queries we studied are anonymous;no personal information was used.

“Fastest rising” means we looked at the most popular searches conducted for 11 months of 2008 (we compile this list by early December) and then ranked them based on how much their popularity increased compared to 2007. “Most popular” searches
are ranked in order of the queries with the largest volume of searches for 2008.

And so, for the global highlights:

Fatest Rising

1. sarah palin
2. beijing 2008
3. facebook login
4. tuenti
5. heath ledger
6. obama
7. nasza klasa
8. wer kennt wen
9. euro 2008
10. jonas brothers

Top Of Mind (interesting keywords here)

It’s the Economy

1. financial crisis
2. depression
3. bailout
4. mortgage crisis
5. wall street
6. oil
7. stock market
8. subprime
9. credit crisis
10. housing crisis

Who is…

1. who is obama
2. who is mccain
3. who is palin
4. who is lil wayne
5. who is miley cyrus
6. who is dolla
7. who is jonas brothers
8. who is chris brown
9. who is biden
10. who is martin luther

What is…

1. what is love
2. what is life
3. what is java
4. what is sap
5. what is rss
6. what is scientology
7. what is autism
8. what is lupus
9. what is 3g
10. what is art

How to…

1. how to draw
2. how to kiss
3. how to write
4. how to cook
5. how to tie
6. how to hack
7. how to run
8. how to cite
9. how to paint
10. how to spell

For the US, highlights:
Google.com – 1. Obama, 2. Facebook, 3. att
Google News – 1. sarah palin, 2. American Idol, 3. McCain
Google Image Search – 1. sarah palin, 2. obama, 3. twilight

There you go. I have to admit that I was surprised about the results, as I was expecting some more terms related to blogging, internet marketing, making money online and the sorts. How to draw and how to kiss were definitely not in my list. For the complete results, please visit Google Zeitgeist 2008. How about you? What were you expecting to be on the first spots?