Google Reveals Top Searches of 2011, Some Surprising Trends
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Fri, Dec 16, 2011
We love when Google releases their figures for the top searches of the past year. It’s always interesting to look back over searches and see how their patterns reflect changes and news topics. So this year, we have to wonder, what to Rebecca Black and Herman Cain have in common? They couldn’t be any less different. What they have in common is actually that they topped Google’s lists of rising searches in 2011. Other top risers included Google+, Hurricane Irene and Justin Bieber’s hair.
These searches are of course not indicative of overall top searches by search amount. The items that regularly top these lists are far more boring than Rebecca Black’s Friday video, and tend to be things like “weather forecast”, restaurant in New York” and “how to boil an egg”. You know, routine things.
Google’s top secret & closely guarded algorithms can pick out the rising trends in searches. That’s why Rebecca Black topped the list this year. Not many people had looked her up before. Cain topped the political searches, because he came to be better known.
The Fastest Rising Searches in 2011:
- Rebecca Black
- Google+
- Hurricane Irene
- Pinterest
- Ryan Dunn
- iPhone 5
- Casey Anthony
- Adele
- Osama Bin Laden
- Steve Jobs
The above list gives a fascinating insight into the minds of the average US Internet user. Osama Bin Laden was one of the biggest stories of the year in the US, but Rebecca Black tops the list. Take from that what you will.
The Google Top 10 Images Rising Searches
- Planking
- Kate Upton
- Justin Bieber 2011
- Pippa Middleton
- Hope Solo
- Ryan Dunn
- Mariah Carey twins
- Rebecca Black
- Casey Anthony
- Royal Wedding
Interestingly, Google says that our searches are really quite diverse. On any given day, 25% of all searches will be for things that people have never searched for on Google before. That’s pretty amazing.
In terms of SEO, Google have let us know that people are still searching for the usual things, they’re just not breakout trends. So we can rest easy for now- the way people use search has not changed that much in the year 2011.
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