As the year ends we can expect to see the TV and radio waves fill up once again with the lists of what happened this past 12 months. What were the biggest singles of the year, the biggest grossing movies, the most hate mail for an X-Factor contestant and so on and so forth.
However, the only list that really matters is the most searched for items on Google, and that list has already been published by the all powerful G.
Incredibly, or perhaps not so much given the average IQ of people in the UK, the top UK searches on Google for 2009 were mostly for well established websites that should have been found easily enough without Google… Google included!
Here are the top ten searches for 2009:
Yep, Google was the 8th most searched for term on Google. Clearly some people couldn’t see the wood for the trees, or the Google for the Google.
Perhaps the most telling results came in the fastest rising searches for 2009, where Microsoft can claim success for Bing being the 9th fastest rising search of the year. Of course, the fact that people looked for ‘Bing’ on Google should tell them something!
- Facebook login
- Jogos
- Ebay UK
- Yahoo mail
- Hotmail
- BBC iPlayer
- Hi5
- Stephen Gately
- Bing
- Spotify
Anthony House, a spokesperson for Google, said about the findings:
Britons had mixed feelings as they headed online this year to search for their favourite online tools, to learn about celebrities new and old, and to find a good bargain.
People searched about new sensations like Lady Gaga and Susan Boyle, but they also turned to the web to learn about the deaths of Stephen Gately, Jade Goody and Michael Jackson.
It’s in the news where Google always trumps its rivals (even more so if Rupert Murdoch makes good on his threat) and the biggest searched for news stories of the year, according to Google, were:
- swine flu
- Susan Boyle
- Jade Goody
- Robert Pattison
- Rihanna
- Michael Jackson
- Google Maps
Twitter
- Stephen Gately
- Iran
[...] It may surprise some to know that ‘Facebook Login’ is actually one of the most searched for phrases on the Internet. In fact, in 2009 ‘Facebook Login’ was the fastest rising search of the year. [...]