Google, Ask.com Weigh In On The Year In Search

It’s that time of year when the major search companies take a look back at
what search terms and categories were popular this year. Yahoo released
its list of the most popular search terms to date for this year earlier this week, headed by
YouTube, Wikipedia, Facebook and iTunes.

MySpace headed Ask.com’s list as most popular search term, and now Google has released its own list, with a twist; it lists the top ten “fastest rising” search terms as opposed to the most popular.

Google’s complete top ten overall for fastest rising terms in the U.S is as follows:

• 1. iphone
• 2. Webkinz
• 3. tmz
• 4. Transformers
• 5. YouTube
• 6. Club Penguin
• 7. MySpace
• 8. Heroes
• 9. Facebook
• 10. Anna Nicole Smith

No surprise to see iPhone on the list (the Apple device also made Yahoo’s list)
for the year. Of course iPhone wouldn’t have been anywhere near a top search
term last year when only rumors of its release were being discussed.

If you don’t have little kids you might be scratching your head over Webkinz, a
popular stuffed animal that also has a virtual online counterpart. Linux
fans don’t account for Club Penguin’s placement on the list; in fact, it’s a
virtual world for kids acquired by Disney earlier this year.

Google’s vice president of search products & user experience, Marissa
Mayer, said some terms shoot to the top based on events or movie treatment.
For example, Transformers is a decades-old toy and TV series that shot back into
public consciousness after the release of the movie by the same name.

Google’s list of “Fastest Falling” search terms includes: World Cup; Mozart; Fifa;
Rebelde; Kazaa; Xanga; webdetente; sudoko; Shakira and MP3.

At Ask.com, MySpace was the only social networking site to make its top
ten list for the year which was otherwise made up of generic-sounding terms
save for, all things, the term Google:

• 1. MySpace
• 2. Dictionary
• 3. Google
• 4. Themes
• 5. Area Codes
• 6. Cars
• 7. Weather
• 8. Games
• 9. Song Lyrics
• 10. Movies

Ask.com’s Top Presidential Candidate Searches for 2007 was headed, in
order, by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Fred Thompson, John Edwards and
Mitt Romney.

No big surprises in the first part of the company’s list of Top Sports
Team Searches for the year: Boston Red Sox; Dallas Cowboys; New England
Patriots and Colorado Rockies, but some fans might raise an eyebrow or two
at the Chicago Bears at number five, edging out the New York Yankees.

On the celebrity front Ask.com narrowed it’s list to the “Top Celebrity
Search of Pregnant Stars” with Jennifer Lopez; Salma Hayek; Christina
Aguilera; Julia Roberts and Halle Berry in the top five.