Zeitgeist, (German for "the spirit of the times") is created through an exploration of the billions of search queries received each year. In addition to the year-end, which highlights the top trends of 2009, it also has several tools that give insight into global, regional, past and present search trends. These tools can never be used to identify individual users because it relies on anonymous, aggregated counts of how often certain search queries occur over time.
In the political arena, some of the most popular searches included firebrand ANC Youth League president, Julius Malema, who pipped Helen Zille of the Democratic Alliance and Mvume Dandala of COPE as the third most searched for politician. Despite having a high volume of searches to his name, the Youth League president had to make way for his seniors, Jacob Zuma and Nelson Mandela who demonstrated their staying power by leading the rankings.
Former Springbok Joost van de Westhuizen had us all scrambling for our keyboards and heading for the Google search box when he released his biography. Joost's relatively late entry into the gossip columns meant he was no match for perennial celebrity, DJ Sbu from youth radio station YFM who led the ‘most for searched for celebrity' category. Socialite Khanyisile Mbau followed him. Benoni-girl done well, Charlize Theron, was not to be outdone coming a close third in the rankings.
In the sports category, the Super 14 rugby was the most searched for item, followed closely by the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket, which was quite an achievement as the event was moved to South Africa from India at a late stage in the planning process. Surprisingly, the Confederations Cup was fourth in the rankings despite it being a prelude to the 2010 World Cup, following the third placed Cape Argus cycle race.
This year's Zeitgeist also reflects important South African concerns, such as understanding how the recession has impacted the local economy. In addition, recession-related keywords such as 'recession jokes' showed that not everyone was taking the recession so seriously. South African consumers have also adapted to the recession by being on the lookout for a good bargain, reflected increasing searches for goods in the second-hand market on websites such as Gumtree and Junkmail Cars.
| Fastest rising | Most popular | Most searched for sports events | Most searched for politician | Most searched for celebs | Most searched recession queries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Facebook login | super 14 | nelson mandela | DJ Sbu | what is recession | |
| gumtree cape town | yahoo | ipl | Jacob zuma | Khanyi Mbau | credit crunch |
| efiling | games | cape argus | Julius malema | Charlize Theron | surviving the recession |
| absa internet banking | lyrics | confederations cup | helen zille | Oscar Pistorius | double dip recession |
| yahoo mail | jobs | comrades marathon | robert mugabe | Gareth Cliff | technical recession |
| gmail.com | gumtree | currie cup | trevor manuel | Trevor Noah | recession cartoons |
| quotes | fa Cup | Mvume mandela | Joost van der Westhuizen | recession over | |
| gmail | british lions tour | Jackie selebi | Nataniel | recession jokes | |
| standard bank | news | absa premiership | patricia de lille | Lira | causes recession |
| Junkmail cars | absa | nedbank golf | ian khama | danny k | recession sa |
Top search terms from over fifty countries appear on its webpage, from popular song lyrics in New Zealand, to top bargain-hunting websites, to electronic brand searches in Hong Kong.
This year's global fastest rising searches show interest across pop culture (with the King of Pop at the helm, followed by searches for movie New Moon and singer Lady Gaga), social networking sites and new technologies such as Windows 7 and Torpedo Gratis:
Global Fastest Rising Queries
The South African results are on online at www.google.com/intl/en_us/press/zeitgeist2009/regional.html#south-africa and the global results on www.google.com/zeitgeist2009.
