Google Zeitgeist
By Barry Ritholtz - December 1st, 2009, 3:00PM
Tweet
Facebook
Reddit
Digg this!
Comments
Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied. Any irrelevancies you can mention will also be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.
December 1st, 2009 at 3:03 pm
I LOVE that American Idol is in the top four, and second for much of the year. Says it all.
December 1st, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Nice “y” axis.
December 1st, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Mannwich
Indeed. The popularity of that show and all it’s clones really does say it all.
December 1st, 2009 at 4:26 pm
I call BS. Where is “Erin Andrews video”?
December 1st, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Are you saying nobody searched for climategate?
“Fuhrer, they found our plans…”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwfNJC_SfVI
December 1st, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Could someone explain the rise in paranormal activity? I feel I must have missed something.
December 1st, 2009 at 5:48 pm
I’m pretty sure the “paranormal activity” search popularity has something to do with the horror film of the same name.
December 1st, 2009 at 8:35 pm
A free word search for “unemployment” on the City by City page yields:
City: popular search rank
Portland: 2nd most frequent
Minneapolis: 4th
Denver: 6th
LA: 9th
Seattle: 9th
I have no idea what that means, other than the search for benefits is greater in the West than the East?
http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/press/zeitgeist2009/cities.html
Methodology
To compile these local lists, we found the most popular searches for each selected city and then ranked them based on how unique they were to that city. A query is “unique” if it is disproportionately popular in a particular city compared to the rest of the country. This method explains why popular local searches (for example, for a specific movie theatre) may appear higher than a term for which people across the country are searching (for example, for a regional sports team).
December 2nd, 2009 at 8:25 am
The dumbing down of America comes through strong in these to four areas.
December 2nd, 2009 at 9:13 am
I think that comes off a bit harsh dean, swine flu and cash for clunkers would be worthwhile google searches for wanting to educate yourself about them. No argument on American Idol or paranormal activity, but people use the internet for entertainment, not to read financial blogs.