Top Web Searches for 2006
What's hot on '06?
Top Overall Searches on AOL (taken from Wendy Boswell's article in about.com)
1. Weather
2. Dictionary
3. Dogs
4. American Idol
5. Maps
6. Cars
7. Games
8. Tattoos
9. Horosopes
10. Lyrics
Top Overall Searches on Yahoo! (see Yahoo! top searches of 2006)
1. Britney Spears
2. WWE
3. Shakira
4. Jessica Simpson
5. Paris Hilton
6. American Idol
7. Beyonce Knowles
8. Chris Brown
9. Pamela Anderson
10. Lindsay Lohan
Top Blog Searches on Yahoo! (also in Yahoo! top searches of 2006)
1. Perez Hilton
2. The Superficial
3. Pink is the New Blog
4. Huffington Post
5. TMZ.com
6. Daily Kos
7. Jossip
8. A Socialite's Life
9. Little Green Footballs
10. Gawker
Top Overall Searches by Google Zeitgeist (see 2006 year-end Zeitgeist)
1. Bebo
2. Myspace
3. World Cup
4. Metacafe
5. Radioblog
6. Wikipedia
7. Video
8. Rebelde
9. Mininova
10. Wiki
"Traditional" and the "Trends" Approach
There are at least two ways in coming up with a list of the top web searches for the year - or any other category for that matter. The default or "traditional" way is the straightforward approach of extracting the items that most frequently appeared in search queries. The alternative is to gather the most popular web searches of the year (2006) that were not as popular the year before (2005) - what I would refer to as the "trends" approach.
Google, through Google Zeitgeist, used the latter approach. Zeitgeist retrieved the most popular web searches for 2006 - those who had the most significant breakthroughs this year. Artem Boystov, a Google Software Engineer, explains this in an article on GoogleBlog.
Based on the results, I am guessing that AOL and Yahoo! used what I called the traditional method to produce their respective lists. Weather and dictionary on the AOL list seem to be fixtures in search queries. I am not sure how Yahoo! came up with its list but Boswell's article on top blog searches of 2006 in Yahoo!, stating that the list comprises of "...the ones that the most people searched for the most number of times in Yahoo Search...", seems to imply the use of the traditional method if Boswell herself has first-hand knowledge about what Yahoo! used and that the same algorithm is used for all the top so-and-so results in the same website.
In fact, I've always thought that Yahoo, AOL, and Google employ the same approach in producing their top searches of the year (my so-called traditional method) until I read the description of Google Zeitgeist. I am unaware if other websites like MSN have yet other approaches.
Zeitgeist provides refreshingly new information about the trends and patterns on the Internet. However, I would prefer it if Google too would provide its own list of top searches for 2006, using the traditional approach, if it hasn't come up with one yet. As mentioned, the top ones in the list are not necessarily those which were entered the most frequent number of times overall. For instance, even if Bebo ranks higher than Myspace on the Zeitgeist list, it does not necessarily mean that more users searched for Bebo than Myspace on 2006. It was just that the increase in the number of searches for Bebo in 2006 exceeds the increase in searches for Myspace. In such a case, I'd also like to know how popular Myspace has become compared to, say, Britney Spears. I might also wonder how often do they search for Myspace compared to games (supposedly a fixture in search queries).
A Second Look at the Results
Based on the Yahoo! Top Searches result, most people use the Internet (or is it just Yahoo?) for entertainment. Every single one in the list is either an entertainment figure or program. People just can't seem to get enough of them on TV that they log on to the net and devour every bit of info on celebrities and TV programs. Or the opportunity that the Internet provides to people for posting comments and engaging in discussions especially about celebrities could be another reason why entertainment is also popular on the net. I am reminded that watching TV is a passive activity where viewers could only "accept" information (often blindly) and react in some other medium. The Internet presents itself as just that kind of medium.
Among the top blogs, I confess to visit only the Huffington post. I find it very interesting and recommend it to others. Most of the other blogs seem to be mostly about gossip and entertainment which I sometimes find trivial and not very entertaining.
The 9th item (horoscope) on the AOL results caught my attention. It is ironic how the internet, a product of hardcore science and technology, is being used to search for horoscopes, itself a product of the pseudoscience of astrology. In this age of reason, the supposed positions of planets and stars are still being used as "guides" for daily living. I am personally confused as to why people would still spend so much time about horoscopes when it has already been debunked by science.
Finally, the Zeitgeist result shows that 2006 is the year of networking and information sharing. Bebo, Myspace, Mininova, Wikipedia, Radioblog, and a couple of others all fall within these categories. They seem to define the internet for most people, especially the younger ones. We just don't get tired of these things, do we? Try next year.
There are at least two ways in coming up with a list of the top web searches for the year - or any other category for that matter. The default or "traditional" way is the straightforward approach of extracting the items that most frequently appeared in search queries. The alternative is to gather the most popular web searches of the year (2006) that were not as popular the year before (2005) - what I would refer to as the "trends" approach.
Google, through Google Zeitgeist, used the latter approach. Zeitgeist retrieved the most popular web searches for 2006 - those who had the most significant breakthroughs this year. Artem Boystov, a Google Software Engineer, explains this in an article on GoogleBlog.
Based on the results, I am guessing that AOL and Yahoo! used what I called the traditional method to produce their respective lists. Weather and dictionary on the AOL list seem to be fixtures in search queries. I am not sure how Yahoo! came up with its list but Boswell's article on top blog searches of 2006 in Yahoo!, stating that the list comprises of "...the ones that the most people searched for the most number of times in Yahoo Search...", seems to imply the use of the traditional method if Boswell herself has first-hand knowledge about what Yahoo! used and that the same algorithm is used for all the top so-and-so results in the same website.
In fact, I've always thought that Yahoo, AOL, and Google employ the same approach in producing their top searches of the year (my so-called traditional method) until I read the description of Google Zeitgeist. I am unaware if other websites like MSN have yet other approaches.
Zeitgeist provides refreshingly new information about the trends and patterns on the Internet. However, I would prefer it if Google too would provide its own list of top searches for 2006, using the traditional approach, if it hasn't come up with one yet. As mentioned, the top ones in the list are not necessarily those which were entered the most frequent number of times overall. For instance, even if Bebo ranks higher than Myspace on the Zeitgeist list, it does not necessarily mean that more users searched for Bebo than Myspace on 2006. It was just that the increase in the number of searches for Bebo in 2006 exceeds the increase in searches for Myspace. In such a case, I'd also like to know how popular Myspace has become compared to, say, Britney Spears. I might also wonder how often do they search for Myspace compared to games (supposedly a fixture in search queries).
A Second Look at the Results
Based on the Yahoo! Top Searches result, most people use the Internet (or is it just Yahoo?) for entertainment. Every single one in the list is either an entertainment figure or program. People just can't seem to get enough of them on TV that they log on to the net and devour every bit of info on celebrities and TV programs. Or the opportunity that the Internet provides to people for posting comments and engaging in discussions especially about celebrities could be another reason why entertainment is also popular on the net. I am reminded that watching TV is a passive activity where viewers could only "accept" information (often blindly) and react in some other medium. The Internet presents itself as just that kind of medium.
Among the top blogs, I confess to visit only the Huffington post. I find it very interesting and recommend it to others. Most of the other blogs seem to be mostly about gossip and entertainment which I sometimes find trivial and not very entertaining.
The 9th item (horoscope) on the AOL results caught my attention. It is ironic how the internet, a product of hardcore science and technology, is being used to search for horoscopes, itself a product of the pseudoscience of astrology. In this age of reason, the supposed positions of planets and stars are still being used as "guides" for daily living. I am personally confused as to why people would still spend so much time about horoscopes when it has already been debunked by science.
Finally, the Zeitgeist result shows that 2006 is the year of networking and information sharing. Bebo, Myspace, Mininova, Wikipedia, Radioblog, and a couple of others all fall within these categories. They seem to define the internet for most people, especially the younger ones. We just don't get tired of these things, do we? Try next year.
posted by Rom
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