Google Zeitgeist
Just think about this for a second. There's this little white box, floating out there on the internet, that millions of people type words, names, places, and even URL's into, seeking information. Maybe they want to buy something. Maybe they're looking for a relative, an ex-lover, a recipe...
Yes, it's ubiquitous search engine. But stitch together a list of the most frequent words, people, and brands typed into the little box, and you've got an eerily fascinating glimpse into the world of the average consumer. Check out Google's 2001 Year-End Zeitgeist -- a collection of search patters, trends and surprises from 2001 as created by wired masses.
The list is enough to wet the pants of every demographic studying advertising agency out there, and produce sighs of wonder from elitist peaking into the crème de la crème of populist junk.
Why, who was the most popular figure we searched for? Not Bush, or even Osama. But Nostradamus. He's also the "Man of the Year."
Equally fascinating is their 2001 timeline which illustrates sudden surges of activity for odd items like the poem "invictus," which was flat line until news of Timothy McVeigh reading it before his due injection.
I wish there were even more topics, like "top dirty words," "top politicians," "top food," etc. Then we'd really be going somewhere.
Comments
As always, Google is kickin'!
Posted by: Jewelies at December 30, 2001 4:28 PM
Yahoo sells this service for several thousand a month which will allow you to see this kind of information in fine grain detail. They gave a demo at Internet World. I was able to use the system for a week. Very very interesting to watch the interests of the mass ebb and flow.
Posted by: filchyboy at January 1, 2002 5:16 AM
