An update to this morning’s post.
Jim Dwyer, the Times reporter whose story I mentioned this morning, responded to my email late in the day by forwarding some of the material Google sent him to pitch their Zeitgeist story.
And so, aside from Walter Gropius and the Large Hadron Collider, what were New Yorkers Googling most this year? The list was compiled using tools like Google Trends and Google Insights, outlined at this nifty Google Press Center page for the Zeitgeist release.
The top 10 fastest rising* seaches for 2008 from NYC computers:
1. Palin
2. iPhone 3G
3. McCain
4. Beijing 2008
5. NBC Olympics
6. Walter Gropius
7. Large Hadron Collider
8. Bernie Mac
9. Michael Phelps
10. John McCain
[*By “fastest rising” they mean the most popular searches from January to November ranked by their popularity increase when compared to 2007, which explains how Palin outstrips Obama in some of these lists. You can browse last year’s results to see how Obama fared then.]
As for 2008, Lord help us, the city was curious about — or terrified by — the prospect of the world collapsing into a black hole. And that’s just #s 1, 3, and 10!
Here’s the 2008 list taking the whole U.S. into account:
- obama
- att
- iphone
- youtube
- fox news
- palin
- beijing 2008
- david cook
- surf the channel
And here’s the list for fastest rising searches worldwide:
- sarah palin
- beijing 2008
- facebook login
- tuenti
- heath ledger
- obama
- nasza klasa
- wer kennt wen
- euro 2008
- jonas brothers
What else can Google tell us about New Yorkers? The press email links to a Google Insights table showing the relative popularity of the five boroughs in search queries. Spoiler: Brooklyn wins.
And apparently we search for pizza a lot more than we search for sushi.
How’s that for answering this morning’s questions in a timely manner? Hats off to Dwyer for sharing his source.
Recent Comments