above: 2009's popular topics; Michael Jackson, Twitter, Health Care Bill, Iraq war, Tiger Woods, Zhu Zhu Hamsters, Green movement, Twilight's New Moon, Lady Gaga and Facebook.
Happy New Year to my wonderful readers. It's each and every one of you that make the labor of daily blogging worth it. I can't thank you enough for your continued support, encouragement, kind letters and comments.
Although If It's Hip, It's Here received less national press than in 2008, the blog finally broke into Alexa's top 100,000 and readership has almost doubled.
2009 was a very unusual year with lots of political, technological and cultural milestones and firsts, as well as tragic losses and economic struggles. It was the year we lost Michael Jackson and found Twitter. Swine flu spread as did the popularity of Lady Gaga. Facebook reached an all time high and myspace faded fast. And Tiger Woods fell from grace while we enter the Year of the Tiger.
According to Google Zeitgeist, the following were the most popular search topics of 2009 both globally and in the US.
Most popular Google searches worldwide, by category, of 2009:
Fastest Rising (Global)
1. michael jackson
2. facebook
3. tuenti
4. twitter
5. sanalika
6. new moon
7. lady gaga
8. windows 7
9. dantri.com.vn
10. torpedo gratis
Fastest Rising in Entertainment (Global)
1. michael jackson
2. transformers
3. eminem
4. naruto shippuden
5. beyonce
6. peliculas id
7. paranormal activity
8. anime online
9. natasha richardson
10. poker face lyrics
Fastest Rising in Food & Drink (Global)
1. acai berry
2. picnic
3. クックパッド
4. tesco direct
5. senseo
6. peanut butter recall
7. nespresso commande
8. habibs delivery
9. mocktail
10. masterchef australia
Fastest Falling (Global)
1. beijing 2008
2. euro 2008
3. heath ledger
4. barack obama
5. amy winehouse
6. kraloyun
7. dailymotion
8. bebo
9. wii
10. emule
Fastest Rising in Sports (Global)
1. real madrid
2. us open
3. ufc
4. sahadan
5. livescore
6. pacquiao vs cotto
7. wbc 速報
8. pga tour leaderboard
9. confederations cup
10. l'equipe football
Popular Queries By Quarter
The graphs below capture the fastest rising query for each quarter of 2009 (United States only), visualized over the entire year. To find the fastest rising query for each quarter, Google looked at the most popular searches conducted every three months and ranked them based on how much their popularity increased compared to the previous quarter. Note how some queries maintain a moderate level of search volume over an extended period of time, whereas others peak sharply and suddenly.
Fastest Rising:
Michael Jackson:
Disasters:
Late-Night TV Shows:
Celebrity Scandals:
Games:
Athletes:
And these were the most popular Google searches, by category, in the United States in 2009:
Google.com - Fastest Rising
1. twitter
2. michael jackson
3. facebook
4. hulu
5. hi5
6. glee
7. paranormal activity
8. natasha richardson
9. farrah fawcett
10. lady gaga
Google News - Fastest Rising
1. swine flu
2. susan boyle
3. jon and kate
4. adam lambert
5. rihanna (chris brown)
6. new moon
7. inauguration
8. michael jackson
9. nadya suleman
10. missing link found
Google Maps - Fastest Rising
1. mount everest
2. laguna seca
3. in-n-out
4. grand canyon
5. eiffel tower
6. white house
7. great wolf lodge
8. wild animal safari
9. voodoo doughnuts
10. path station
Google.com - Fastest Falling
1. john mccain
2. olympics
3. heath ledger
4. barack obama
5. sarah palin
6. circuit city
7. ron paul
8. iron man
9. spore
10. wii fit
Google Image Search - Fastest Rising
1. lady gaga
2. new moon
3. michael jackson
4. megan fox
5. selena gomez
6. rihanna
7. taylor swift
8. bella swan
9. alice cullen
10. jacob black
Google Mobile Search - Fastest Rising
1. twitter
2. michael jackson
3. facebook
4. imdb
5. cta bus tracker
6. bebo
7. nba scores
8. univision.com
9. steve mcnair
10. espn.com
The methodology used to determine the above:
To compile the 2009 Year-End Zeitgeist, Google studied the aggregation of billions of queries people typed into Google search in 2009. They use data from multiple sources, including Insights for Search, Google Trends and internal data tools. They also filter out spam and repeat queries to build out lists that best reflect "the spirit of the times." All of the search queries they studied are anonymous—no personal information was used.
Except where noted, all of these search terms are most popular for 2009—ranked in order of the queries with the largest volume of searches this year. In some cases, they list the "fastest rising" queries, which means they found the most popular searches conducted in 2009 and then ranked them based on how much their popularity increased compared to 2008. Conversely, "fastest falling" queries were very popular in 2008 but flattened in popularity in 2009.
