Google reveals 'Zeitgeist' survey of most-searched terms in 2011 

Thursday, December 15th 2011 by John Burns

Search engine optimisation providers will be studying the latest Google 'Zeitgeist' survey with interest as it reveals what are the most popular and fastest rising searches of the year.

Google revealed the trends and correlations of search in its report after analysing the billions of searches it receives each year with the aim of revealing the spirit of the year, in web form.

This year's fastest rising search was the royal wedding with the country and the wider world gripped by the ceremony but the wider top ten search list was largely made up of practical searches. This is due to people searching for direct links to some of the most popular sites on the web.

Such queries which populated the list include Facebook, eBay, YouTube, Hotmail and Google itself, which may surprise some. The same can be said in the individual category, the perennially popular searches still outweigh the fastest risers.

To show this Kim Kardashian, Victoria Beckham and Emma Watson are among the most popular searches, way clear of the fastest-rising searches which included names such as Ryan Dunn, Adele and Ed Sheeran.  

Google said that its report was undertaken "through an exploration of the billions of search queries we receive each year. In addition to the year-end Zeitgeist, which highlights the top trends of 2011, we have several tools that give insight into global, regional, past and present search trends".

The fastest rising 'what is' question was revealed to be 'What is AV?', a flashback to the recent referendum which took place in the UK this year. Elsewhere in the report, it was shown that Asda topped the food and drink searches while the most searched travel destination was found to be Las Vegas.

Many SEO specialists will be keen to see how their products fared in the report which proved that companies need to remain in and round the top year after year if they wish to fully enjoy the power of Google.

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