The Big Picture - Macro Perspective on the Capital Markets, Economy, Technology, and Digital Media

10 Responses to “Google Zeitgeist”

1. Mannwich Says:
   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.

2. bergsten Says:
   December 1st, 2009 at 3:28 pm

   Nice “y” axis.

3. Dogfish Says:
   December 1st, 2009 at 3:47 pm

   Mannwich

   Indeed. The popularity of that show and all it’s clones really does say it all.

4. Adult Franklin411 Says:
   December 1st, 2009 at 4:26 pm

   I call BS. Where is “Erin Andrews video”?

5. Climategate Says:
   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

6. Lord Says:
   December 1st, 2009 at 4:54 pm

   Could someone explain the rise in paranormal activity? I feel I must have missed something.

7. ZedThou Says:
   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.

8. trip Says:
   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).

9. deanscamaro Says:
   December 2nd, 2009 at 8:25 am

   The dumbing down of America comes through strong in these to four areas.

10. rj Says:
    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.