Google Tallies 2008 Top Searches

By Geoff Duncan Published December 10, 2008

Google Tallies 2008 Top Searches

Internet search giant Google has released its 2008 End-of-Year Zeitgeist, noting what was hot worldwide in Internet searches for the year. Unlike search engines like AOL and Yahoo who base their end-of-year summaries mostly on the frequency of terms—hence allowing Britney Spears to rule the search engine listings for years on end—Google bases its Zeitgeist both on frequency and on the novelty of terms. In other words, 2008’s zeitgeist is more about what users searched for in 2008 that they were not searching for in 2007. Google claims their method is more indicative of the “spirit of the times”…and it definitely produces some different results.

According to Google, the “fastest rising” search terms worldwide for 2008 were:

sarah palin
beijing 2008
facebook login
tuenti
heath ledger
obama
nasza klasa
wer kennt wen
euro 2008
jonas brothers

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In the United States, the fastest rising terms were a little different:

obama
facebook
att
iphone
youtube
fox news
palin
beijing 2008
david cook
surf the channel

Google also compiled Zeitgeist summaries for a variety of countries and regions, including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, China, Chile, Columbia, Denmark, Germany, Spain, France, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, The Philippines, Austria, Poland, Switzerland, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Finland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

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