It’s almost the end of the year, the end of the year. Then next year, next year it will be 2012. 2012. The year after 2011, that is this year…
Rebecca Black, “Friday” YouTube phenom (167 million views) and might-be singer, took top honors as Google unveiled its top searches for the year. Rounding out the Google Zeitgest 2011 were Google+ (interesting) and in third position, Ryan Dunn, the Jackass star who died this summer when his Porsche crashed into some trees.
Apple dominated with three entries in the top 10, including iPhone 5, Steve Jobs, and iPad2.
Notably absenct in the technology front was Android, whose mobile operating system has skyrocketed in the last twelve months.
As the number one search engine in the world, Google’s wealth of data can be used to understand what internet users around the world are searching for. Trends, hot topics, key stories emerge. Google though is not alone in its year end reporting of this information. Competitor Twitter recently posted its top stories, or hashtags, of the year.
Because who doesn’t love a top 10 list?
In addition Google published a series of top 10 lists across a variety of topics including: fastest rising (Rebecca Black), fastest falling (Myspace), fastest rising in sports (Mayweather vs. Ortiz), fastest rising in entertainment (Rebecca Black… sigh), fastest rising in consumer electronics (Amazon Kindle Fire), and more.
Thanks to an easy-to-use interface, users visiting the Zeitgeist site an navigate based on specific parts of the world.
[Google Zeitgeist 2011, 2011 Twitter Hashtag Year in Review]