Google Zeitgeist has just posted its list of the top 10 search terms of 2009.
The King of Pop was the "King of Google Search" in 2009, as "Michael Jackson" was the fastest rising search term globally this year.
Check out the slideshow below for details on the top 10 most popular (or "fastest rising") search terms of 2009, which Google notes are "ranked in order of the queries with the largest volume of searches this year."
Scroll down to see the most popular searches in other categories, such as entertainment and sports, as well as the fastest falling search terms of the year.
Fastest Rising in Entertainment (Global)
1. michael jackson 2. transformers 3. eminem 4. naruto shippuden 5. beyonce 6. peliculas id 7. paranormal activity 8. anime online 9. natasha richardson 10. poker face lyrics
Fastest Rising in Sports (Global)
1. real madrid 2. us open 3. ufc 4. sahadan 5. livescore 6. pacquiao vs cotto 7. wbc 速報 8. pga tour leaderboard 9. confederations cup 10. l'equipe football
Here are the "fastest falling" search terms (globally):
1. beijing 2008 2. euro 2008 3. heath ledger 4. barack obama 5. amy winehouse 6. kraloyun 7. dailymotion 8. bebo 9. wii 10. emule
Where do the numbers come from?
Google Zeitgeist explains that it studies the
aggregation of billions of queries people typed into Google search this year. We use data from multiple sources, including Insights for Search, Google Trends and internal data tools. We also filter out spam and repeat queries to build out lists that best reflect "the spirit of the times."
In determining the ranking of the top Google searches, Google also compares search volume across years:
In some cases, we list the "fastest rising" queries, which means we found the most popular searches conducted in 2009 and then ranked them based on how much their popularity increased compared to 2008. Conversely, "fastest falling" queries were very popular in 2008 but flattened in popularity in 2009.
Read the whole report at Google's Zeitgeist site, which also lists the fastest rising terms in "food and drink," as well as more detailed search reports by categories such as entertainment, news, "around the home," sports, and more.
Bing also recently released its top search terms for 2009, which can be viewed here.
Bing's top trending topics were the following:
1) Michael Jackson
2) Twitter
3) Swine Flu
4) Stock Market
5) Farrah Fawcett
6) Patrick Swayze
7) Cash for Clunkers
8) Jon and Kate Gosselin
9) Billy Mays
10) Jaycee Dugard