Google has released its yearly Zeitgeist report, detailing the most searched terms and phrases for individual nations, giving us a unique insight into really does occupy a nations consciousness.
We have been able to take a look at the most popular search phrases in the UK, and as you might expect, it is dominated by political issues.
Surprisingly, a number of internet startups including Chatroulette and Formspring and tech devices like the iPad have also managed to muscle-in amongst mentions of the General Election and rail strikes, holding positions in the fastest rising searches in 2010.
UK searchers took to Google to quench their thirst for news and events, particularly when the country was in process of electing its next leader. Top news search terms included the names of each political party, mentions of David Cameron and the term “Register to vote”, demonstrating the desire for people in the UK to influence the results of the Election.
Facebook, BBC, YouTube, Hotmail, eBay and Google itself were present the top ten overall most searched phrases for 2010, showing that although many people know the website addresses for the websites they are searching for, a Google search is more convenient for them. It might also show that UK searchers are setting Google as their homepage or utilising built-in browser search tools to perform these searches, after-all it wouldn’t make sense to manually type in google.co.uk and then perform the search thereafter, would it?!
With the recession still fresh in everyones minds, cheap flights, holidays, train tickets and car insurance ranked top in the money-saving search terms, whilst cakes, wine and curry were the most desired of the food and drink category.
UK searchers loved coco, bass, hoodies, football and dance, but they hated mountains, snow, football, mum and love. Justin Bieber didn’t feature in either category but of course found himself amongst the fastest rising searches and the fastest rising people.
Watch the video from Google Trends here.
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