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December 16, 2011

Google Zeitgeist 2011

Google Zeitgeist 2011, the list of the fastest rising queries in 2011, brings a great news for Google: the second most popular query this year was [Google+]. It's the first time in Google's history when a Google service makes the top 3. In 2005, [orkut] was the 5th gainer, while [youtube] was the 6th fastest rising query in 2007.

"Google+ became the fastest growing social network, acquiring more than 10 million users in three weeks. From July 3 - 17, Google+ and related keywords like Google Plus and Google + had more traffic than the keyword Sports," explains Google.

Here's the top 10:

1. Rebecca Black
2. Google+
3. Ryan Dunn
4. Casey Anthony
5. Battlefield 3
6. iPhone 5
7. Adele
8. 東京 電力 (Tokyo Electric Power Company)
9. Steve Jobs
10. iPad2

It's interesting to notice that 2011 is the first year since 2007 when Facebook is no longer included in the top 10 rising queries. Google+ is actually the only online service from the top 10, down from 6 services last year (Chatroulette, Friz, Myxer, Twitter, Gamezer, Facebook).

Here's the year in review:

6 comments:

  1. Though the site is beautifully craftes, interestingly it is not complete. Click on "About Zeitgeist" and you have a null page.

    Here is the proof -
    http://i.imgur.com/97lDh.png

    ReplyDelete
  2. I dont' understand how the results for Google Zeitgeist are produced.

    If Google Zeitgeist lists the "most popular" queries in 2011, either

    1) Google Zeitgeist results are wrong (compared to Google Trends ones)
    2) Google Zeitgeist uses a different approach from Google Trends

    For example, according to Google Trends, it seems that the volume of searches for "Lady Gaga" in 2011 is 5 times bigger than the ones for "Rebecca Black":

    http://www.google.com/trends?q=rebecca+black%2C+lady+gaga&ctab=0&geo=all&date=2011&sort=0

    ReplyDelete
  3. They're not the most popular, just the fastest rising queries in 2011. For example, queries like "news", "mp3", "games", "weather" are always popular and you'd always find them in the list of the most popular searches. Zeitgeist's goal is to find the queries that are a lot more popular than last year and that are defining for this year. Even though a lot more people search for "facebook" than for "google+", Facebook's growth rate couldn't keep up with Google+.

    ReplyDelete
  4. hahaha Rebecca Black no 1 beat lady gaga

    ReplyDelete
  5. Google Zeitgeist 2011 is so interesting! I mean, you can get a sense of people's minds and their worldview!

    Here's my view on the same, with interesting comparisons!
    http://atharvjoshi.blogspot.com/2011/12/google-zeitgeist-2011.html#axzz1gwb6eNMq

    ReplyDelete
  6. Though the site is beautifully craftes, interestingly it is not complete. Click on "About Zeitgeist" and you have a null page.

    ReplyDelete

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