Google's top 2008 searched terms in SA

11 Dec 2008

Released yesterday, Wednesday, 10 December 2008 was Google's annual Zeitgeist, a look at 2008 through the collective eyes of the world on the web. The 2008 Year-End Zeitgeist gives a perspective on the year's major events and hottest trends based on global searches, as well as searches conducted in South Africa and 35 additional countries.

In addition to telling us what people are curious about in SA, Google Zeitgeist tools also offer insight into which topics were of interest across the globe.

This year, for the first time since its inception in 2001, Google took a dive into global search information across more than 30 countries and published its findings all in one place: the Google Zeitgeist 2008 website. This year's global fastest rising searches show interest in global events such as the Beijing Olympics and Euro 2008, with a number of American politicians and international social networking sites showing up as well:

Ranking	Most popular searches	Fastest rising searches	Fastest rising global queries
1	Facebook	Gumtree	sarah palin
2	Cape Town	Facebook	beijing 2008
3	Games	Lotto	facebook login
4	Maps	Eskom	tuenti
5	Yahoo	You Tube	heath ledger
6	News	Beeld	obama
7	Jobs	News 24	nasza klasa
8	Google	Yahoo mail	wer kennt wen
9	Gmail	Chuck Norris	euro 2008
10	Pictures	Beijing Olympics	jonas brothers

News and politics: most popular queries for SA

Ranking	Politicians	News stories
1	Jacob Zuma	Load shedding
2	Thabo Mbeki	2010 World Cup
3	Trevor Manuel	Beijing Olympics
4	Julius Malema	Barack Obama
5	Kgalema Motlanthe	Global Warming
6	Helen Zille	Euro 2008
7	Fikile Mbalula	Xenophobia
8	Mbhazima Shilowa	ADT
9	Mongosuthu Buthelezi	Zimbabwe Elections
10	Blade Nzimande	COPE

Sports and Sport teams: most popular queries for SA

Ranking	Sports	Teams
1	Soccer	The Sharks
2	Golf	Kaizer Chiefs
3	Rugby	The Lions
4	Football	Mameodi Sundowns
5	Athletics	Bafana Bafana
6	Cricket	Orlando Pirates
7	Surf	Stormers
8	Tennis	Springboks
9	Netball	Cheetahs
10		Proteas

International and Local Celebs: most popular queries for SA

Ranking	International celebrities	Local celebrities
1	Chuck Norris	DJ Sbu
2	Chris Brown	DJ Fresh
3	Britney Spears	DJ Cleo
4	Miley Cyrus	Kelly Khumalo
5	Heath Ledger	Danny K
6	Celine Dion	Ryk Neethling
7	Leona Lewis	Khanyi Mbau
8	Jonas Brothers	Connie Ferguson
9	Madonna	Gareth Cliff
10	Rihanna	Loyiso Bala

Google reveals the internet "Zeitgeist" (German for "the spirit of the times") through an exploration of the millions of search queries it receives every day. In addition to the Year-end Zeitgeist, which highlights the top trends of 2008, it also has several tools that give insight into global, regional, past and present search trends. According to Google, its Zeitgeist tools can't be used to identify individual users because it relies on anonymised, aggregated counts of how often certain search queries occur over time. These tools are available year-round to play with, explore, and learn from - go to www.google.com/zeitgeist. The SA website is located at http://sites.google.com/a/pressatgoogle.com/zeitgeist08-za/.