As the 19,500 visitors who come to this blog know, I love keywords.
Why?
These words that people search for a daily, hourly and every second basis are what are in peoples’ minds. These trends that google keeps track of or searches that people make to obtain something (information, retailers who will sell them an item they want or websites which give some form of fulfillment [social, interest or something to help with the daily mundane]) are truly what reflect what’s in the minds of our society today.
Having this knowledge can reap financial rewards. Understanding these trends and search dynamics can provide people power in many arenas. Thus, my interest in these keywords.
This love of keywords has translated into an annual study I’ve been doing for a number of years trying to understand what are the most popular keywords on the internet.
Not only do I love keywords, but so does google and they believe these keywords & the data behind them represent the “spirit of the current times.” As a result, they publish an annual report sharing with us what were the top keyword trends of the year called Google Zeitgeist. Before the 2012 edition comes out soon, I thought we would review the past 11 years.
2001 Google Zeitgeist
The first year they published this annual report on the year’s trends was 2001. In that year, we learned the top 10 women who were sought after were:
and the top 20 rising searches that year was also topped by the top male searched that year, the famous French apothecary Nostradamus. After the author of “Les Propheties” came the following other rising trends:
The 2002 end of the year search trends report told us instead that “spiderman” became more popular as a rising search than the seer from the year before. “Shakira” and several other celebrities dominated the top 20 list including the top male “eminem” who replaced the man who some thought could predict the future. Maybe “nostradamus” could have been a good Google Zeitgeist consultant. We wouldn’t have to wait until the end of the year to find out the results.
The Oscars are the top gaining query for the month.
French users search for “elections presidentielles” as Jean-Marie Le Pen upset Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and qualified to face French President Jacques Chirac in the runoff for presidency.
Controversial Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn is murdered a week before national elections.
The world cup becomes the most popular sports event of the year and the term was the third most popular query overall for the month of June.
Spain and Morocco feud over possession of Isla Perejil, a tiny island in the Mediterranean Sea.
German users search for “hochwasser,” the German translation for “flood”, as the waters rise around Dresden.
Users around the world remember the events of September 11, 2001.
Users search for information about the sniper scare in the Washington, D.C. area.
Eminem continue to be the most popular male search trend of the year, but “britney spears” overtook all the phrases to be the hottest search trend in the upward direction in 2003’s examination of the top search trends:
And this year also included the knowledge that many people should acknowledge when it comes to search, but images are what many people are looking for when they search.
“Britney Spears” reigned as the top search trend for two years in a row in 2004. Along with Britney, several other women dominated the top keyword trends (in 2004) including “paris hilton” (#2), “christina aguilera” (#3), “pamela anderson” (#4) and “carmen electra” (#7).
1.bebo 2. myspace 3. world cup 4. metacafe 5. radioblog 6. wikipedia 7. video 8. rebelde 9. mininova 10. wiki
2007 Google Zeitgeist
Even though previous years would break out searches examining them from specific countries, this year, Google divides the top 10 list in 2007 between the U.S. and the world.
Fastest Rising (global)
iphone
badoo
facebook
dailymotion
webkinz
youtube
ebuddy
second life
hi5
club penguin
Fastest Rising (U.S.)
iphone
webkinz
tmz
transformers
youtube
club penguin
myspace
heroes
facebook
anna nicole smith
The list was also broken into different quarters of the year (for US Searches):
We actually wrote in detail about the 2010 Google Zeitgeist last year, but it wasn’t a popular post. Nevertheless, 2010 continued to show the trends globally:
æ±äº¬ 電力 [(TEPCO) Fukushima I Plant damaged in the 2011 Japanese Earthquake\]
Steve Jobs
iPad2
And Apple continued to be the fancy of many tech and design lovers helping bolster the stock price to approximately $405 (one of the highest valuations of the company in it’s history).
Our Predictions for 2012’s Google Zeitgeist
We believe Apple’s products include the release of the iPhone 5 will continue to dominate the trends. The stock price of the company has inflated to as high as $665/share and the company is valued at over $500 billion dollars. Yet, the price over earnings is still only at a minimal 12 despite the valuation. The company has taken over many forms of communication and doesn’t appear to have a significant rival minus Samsung which lost in court against the tech behemoth.