Google Zeitgeist 2011

"An interested outsider's view on what the World and India searched for, according to Google's 2011 Zeitgeist"


About a day ago, I noticed a Green pop-up on the Google homepage. Always interested in such Google Antics, a 'Show Me' took me into the world of Google Zeitgeist! FYI, Zeitgeist is German for "Spirit of the Age" relating to any particular mass-trending climate in any area.

Zeitgeist is just another year-end list compiled by search giant Google, which shows top searched terms for the year, giving us a clue of what we, the users have spent the last 12 months looking for.

According to Google - "Zeitgeist sorted billions of Google Searches to capture the year's 10 fastest-rising global queries and the rest of the spirit of 2011." Here are the top 10 this year. Credit - Google Zeitgeist 2011 

What Zeitgeist 2011 Tells Us 

As you can see, this year's overall top-10 list tells us:
1. We love Technology and Entertainment.

2. That 東京 電力 (TEPCO, owners of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant), was the first non-Latin term to make it to the global fastest-rising list.

3. WE LOVE REBECCA BLACK (Really? Damn. And I thought 13-year old teens were intelligent! What a LETDOWN!) Shh, Don't tell the Kitty!

Credit - Memebase

Moreover, Zeitgeist tells us how the World reacted to situations, be it Osama Bin Laden's death, Anna Hazare's crusade against corruption, Amazon Kindle Fire's rise to the top in Consumer Electronics or as we've *sadly* seen, Rebecca Black topping the list. 

How Google Zeitgeist Works

Instead of me explaining how Zeitgeist compiles billions upon billions (I love Carl Sagan <3) search terms, relates them with trends and comes up with the top-10 list, here's a lovely screenshot of Google explaining how they do it!

This answers most of our questions! Credit - Google Zeitgeist 2011

What's on Zeitgeist?

There's an awesome lot to explore on the website. For a start, the website has a 'Top 10 Lists' page, which has a variety of lists (including fastest rising, fastest falling, fastest rising on Google Maps, and fastest rising on Google News Et Cetera, Et Cetera) and this is for EVERY continent. Also, every continent has content from certain countries - Egypt (Famous for the Tahrir Square movement), India (World Cup, Anna Hazare and more), United Kingdom (The Royal Wedding), United States (Ah! This HAS to be in every list) to name a few. 

Credit - Google Zeitgeist 2011 

Due to the fact that readers will get bored, and that the blogpost will be *verrry* long and due to other reasons, I cannot go into every detail (Who CAN???), but here are some things I found Interesting! (All images are screenshots from the Google Zeitgeist website, ALL CREDIT to Google - the Gods)

Some Comparisons on the Google Zeitgeist 2011

1. Apple iPhone 5 (4S really) vs Steve Jobs

This was during the period of his death (Sad). The graph is almost similar, Also compare iPad 2 and Steve Jobs - the graph of the iPad 2 is almost constant throughout the year, whereas Steve's has one peak, during the period of his death.

2. Ryan Dunn Dead vs Amy Winehouse Death

Another sad moment for the entertainment list. In the list, the searches during the death periods of Amy Winehouse and Ryan Dunn (an American TV Daredevil) there are comparable peaks. 

3. Amazon Kindle Fire vs iPhone 4S

Amazon Kindle Fire, a product on my shopping cart, surprisingly topped the Consumer Electronics list! No wonder, a cheap, quality smart tablet is what one wants. Interestingly, here, the iPhone 4S (at No. 2) emulates Kindle consistently. But, due to the 'last year comparison' clause, Kindle tops the list!

4. Rebecca Black vs Osama Bin Laden

Yes! LOL! This comparison in the Fastest Rising People playlist. Surprisingly, Rebecca loses this one!

5. Anna Hazare vs Poonam Pandey

Who isn't a fan of Anna Hazare, the anti-corruption crusader! "The Protester" is indeed Time Person of the Year 2011, and Anna is one of them. However, in these two graphs, we see something interesting - When Poonam Pandey gained fame (during the Cricket World Cup 2011), Anna Hazare was still unknown, but when we see Anna's spikes, we also see some spikes on the Poonam graph, for some reasons I cannot figure out! You can try this out yourself too!

Oh, that's pretty much it. Wait. Mr. Curious pitches in with something!

This article on the Daily Mail looks interesting, especially the blue boxes! Mr. Curious Suggests!

Below is the link to the Official Google Zeitgeist website too! Play around and enjoy!

Google Zeitgeist 2011

And to end the post, here's an Official Google video titled "Zeitgeist 2011 - Year in Review" on YouTube! 

(Don't forget to join the blog, because that's what a novice blogger likes)

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