Google has released the 2006 Year-End Zeitgeist — a compilation of the most popular search terms in various categories. The most common general searches are very internet-y overall (metacafe; wikipedia; radioblog), with the exception of “world cup,” which was the third most common search.
There are some oddities, like the fact that “promiscuous” was the most common definition search. Really? Are people trying to figure out whether they’re promiscuous, or trying to decide whether they can fairly call someone promiscuous? Or are they just envious? Weird. Maybe they’re just jonesing for Shane.
And then there’s the “how to” list, which includes “how to scream” as the fifth most common request. That’s so emo. Er, screamo. It’s also an understandable search if your tattoo artist is partly responsible for “how to tattoo” taking seventh place on that list. Ouch.
The “where is” searches included Togo, Torino, Darfur, Palestine, and Dubai, as well as Matt. As in “where is Matt.” The latter is probably a search for Matt Lauer’s globe-trotting segment or for one of the “Where the hell is Matt?” videos online, which are pretty cool.
The seventh most searched-for scandal was the Clay Aiken imbroglio, which now also gets you lots of links to the Rosie O’Donnell vs. Kelly Ripa thing. Sigh. The Dancing With the Stars vs. American Idol vs. Project Runway graph is kind of surprising: I mean, I think Idol rules, but I wouldn’t have expected it to rule so supremely! I also wouldn’t have expected Barack Obama to spike that much higher than Hillary Clinton in the possible Presidents graph. Uh oh.
But the most surprising thing about the zeitgeist lists? You can’t actually click on the search terms in order to Google them yourself. Sheesh.
