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1 obama
2 facebook
3 att
4 iphone
5 youtube
6 fox news
7 palin
8 beijing 2008
9 david cook
10 surf the channel
That's very different to the Yahoo! list we reported yesterday, which showed Britney Spears in top place and Barack Obama at number three, separated by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). So what's going on?
Most significantly, the two companies measure different things. Yahoo!'s list is based on "a number of factors, including absolute volume and growth versus previous periods, to see which themes and trends bubble to the surface."
Google, by comparison, shows the fastest rising search terms.
So whereas Obama has rocketed to prominence over the last year or two, Spears' fame is well established. She therefore benefits from the way Yahoo! factors in absolute volume as well as growth.
I don't think that's the only reason - see page 2.
And if you were to tell me there are demographic differences between people who mostly use Google search and those who prefer Yahoo!, I wouldn't think you were crazy. Sure, I'd want some evidence before I believed you, but it isn't an outlandish notion.
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So if we're talking stereotypes, that might explain the preponderance of celebrities on Yahoo!'s list.
But were lots of people really searching for 'facebook' and 'youtube' as suggested by the Zeitgeist list?
I doubt it. My guess is many of them accidentally typed into their browser's search box instead of the URL box. For example, typing att into some browsers will take you to www.att.com - a convenient shortcut.
Or some may be using browsers that don't work that way, so they're using the search box to allow a mouse click in the results list instead of typing those extra characters.
Anyway, I'm off to find out who David Cook is (or was), and to investigate why "surf the channel" appeared on Google's list.
