Google has released their interesting list of highlights from Google searches done around the world. It is really interesting to see which search terms tracked with certain events throughout the year. You also get to see the most popular and fast rising searches for 2008 by selected country.
Google Zeitgeist 2008
Zeitgeist means “the spirit of the times” and searches on the Google search engine have been analyzed and some highlights are now published for your entertainment.
For example, they show that searches for the term “layaway” spiked when the financial crisis hit.
They show a graph comparing the searches for this term in 2008 versus 2007 . Interesting that it matches the same query in Google Trends shown below
Another interesting term that they list is “subprime”. Here is what Google Trends shows:
Notice how in both graphs the peak in the last quarter of 2008 are similar. This is a similar technique to the one used to predict flu outbreaks using search terms.
Top searches on Google Product Search
You can also find the top product searches for the 2008 holiday season here. It is interesting to see which gifts are new and which gifts are still popular. For example Uggs seem to be just as popular as holiday gifts. Again a look at Google Trends shows this pattern.
Try it for yourself. You can take one of the search terms from the Google Zeitgeist list for 2008 and check it in Google Trends.
Have fun.
