The Weird Things People Search for on the Internet
Author : Paul Gil    -   Subject : Internet

The world's most popular search engine, Google.com, reports its Top Searches at the end of each year. Called "Zeitgeist", meaning "spirit of the time", this Google report is quite fascinating. It gives us insight into the minds and the cultural influences of the Internet public. For example, the top search in the Netherlands for 2003 was "sponge bob", indicating a large family presence on the Internet in that country. Soccer star, David Beckham, is also a popular search in many countries. "The Matrix" and "Harry Potter" also figure prominently in Google searches.

Below is a quick sampling of the Zeitgeist search report for 2003. The results are collated from over 55 billion separate Google searches.

(Note: the search strings are listed in lower case; this is common for search requests on the Internet, and accordingly, this is how Google reports them.)

1. Sponsored Links
People Search Engine
Free PeopleFinder searches - onetime or unlimited reports
reunite.myfamily.com

Instant People Search
People Search by Maiden/Spouse Name Age, Date of Birth, Social Security
www.Intelius.com

Most-popular United Kingdom searches for 2003: prince charles, the eastenders, winnie the pooh.

2. Most-popular France searches for 2003: SNCF, FNAC, star academy.

3. Most-popular Canada searches for 2003: finding nemo, paris hilton, inuyasha

4. Most-popular Italy searches for 2003: pagine bianche, meteo, trenitalia.

5. Most-popular Japan searches for 2003: gundam, hanshin tigers, matrix.

6. Three most-popular Australia searches for 2003: australian idol, britney spears, christina aguilera.

7. Most-popular Spain searches for 2003: letizia ortiz, terra, gran hermano

8. Most-popular Netherlands searches for 2003: sponge bob, christina aguilera, voetbal

9. Most-popular USA searches for 2003: britney spears, the matrix, and harry potter.

10. Most-popular men, as searched by France in 2003: eminem, harry potter, marilyn manson.

11. Most-popular men, as searched by Japan in 2003: beckham, tetsunori shigeno, bob sapp.

12. Most-popular women, as searched by France in 2003: britney spears, lorie, jlo.

13. Most-popular women, as searched by Japan in 2003: yuko ogura, kyoko hasegawa, miho yoshioka.

Return to articles