Would it surprise you to know that Google does a pulse check on zeitgeist – world or collective spirit – taking billions of search terms as a cyber-snapshot of cultural and social obsessions in over 30 countries?
No? I didn’t think so. After all, we noted in this space just a month ago that Google could pinpoint plot search words like “cold” and “cough” to predict where the next flu epidemic was breaking … long before Centers for Disease Control got their data sheets together. See Search Technology Powerful Enough to Track Bugs .
Unifying themes internationally were socializing and politics.
–Google Blog, Marissa Meyer, VP of Search Product and User Experience
The fastest rising search terms in the UK:
IPlayer . . . Facebook
IPhone . . . YouTube
Yahoo Mail . . . Large Hadron Collider
Obama . . . Friv
Cam4 . . . Jogos
The most searched terms in the UK:
Facebook . . . BBC
YouTube . . . eBay
Games . . . News
Hotmail . . . Bebo
Yahoo . . . Jobs
Obviously, Google is NOT the highest authority, at least according to one dissenter:
