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OK, so we all know what people are really searching for most of the time. But if you filter out the perennial favorites (most of which are NSFW), then you can have a look at the most popular, up-and-coming search terms of 2007. In case you missed these earlier, here are the lists of top queries from various search engines:

AOL breaks down its “Hot Searches” by categories, including movies, bands, and accidental celebrities

Ask.com shows that its search volume can predict World Series winners…now will the Cowboys beat the Patriots and prove that true for the NFL as well? If Ask users are unusually prescience extends to presidential candidates, it looks like Barack Obama has Hillary Clinton beat.

Google brings us its year-end zeitgeist, telling us that the iPhone, Webkinz, TMZ and Transformers were the fastest-rising search terms of the year in the U.S.

Lycos tells us that poker, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton topped the search charts this year.

Yahoo’s Top Trends in Search in 2007 reveal that Saddam Hussein, Britney Spears, and Harry Potter were among the most searched-for names this year.

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Though more and more people are using search engines all the time, that doesn’t necessarily translate into more diversity in search terms. In fact, according to Hitwise, the top 5% of all search volume consists of just 9 terms.

That’s down from 49 terms in 2005, reports Hitwise UK Research Director Robin Goad, though he doesn’t elaborate on exactly which terms those are. 

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Apple’s hot gadget, the toy world’s must-have plush pets, and arguably AOL’s hottest web property represented the top three fastest-rising search terms at Google.

Catapulting to the top of the hottest queries hitting Google’s index means grabbing the interest of thousands of visitors, all happily tapping away at their keyboards and looking for details on what is interesting them in an increasing fashion.

We heard from Google this afternoon, in a brief note about search terms on the rise in 2007. Here’s the top ten terms US visitors have been dropping into the search box:

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

These trends represent terms that quickly rose over a period of time in 2007. This list shows the ones that shot up the fastest. A gadget, a toy, five websites, a movie, a TV show, and a tragically dead model; in other words, a snapshot of American attention from the perspective of the leading search engine.

If anyone needs me, I’ll be reading "The Children of Hurin."

Google, Search, Trends

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It’s odd, really – if Wikipedia were a person or animal, we’d be hard-pressed to actually like it, given how untrustworthy it can be.  But we do like it, and the site’s popularity gives some people all the more reason to toy with it.

Whether you’re looking up simple search terms like “dog” and “tree,” or a more complicated query like “computational fluid dynamics,” Wikipedia often shows up in Google’s top five results.  This is extremely impressive.  But as Rand Fishkin asks, “Why Edit Wikipedia Pages if There’s No Link Juice?”

Fishkin goes on to list seven answers to that rhetorical question.  Depending on one’s point of view, the reasons may be clever – “reputation management” – or somewhat cruel – “to spite.”  They’re all realistic, though, and are somewhat hard for Wikipedia’s administrators to guard against.

Wikipedia may be moving past the point where sensitive souls have to worry about encountering random rude words.  Yet more subtle “Wiki-hacks” (to use Fishkin’s term) may be even more disruptive, since few people will notice and correct them.

Personally, I plan to visit and link to Wikipedia just as much as ever.  It’s really very strange, though, how the site gets away with such things.

Tags: Wikipedia

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You may or may not be able to monitor the pulse of a nation through search terms, but in this case, that’s something of a non-issue; a partnership between Ask and “Entertainment Tonight” will only focus on celebrity names.

Are queries for “Paris Hilton” more popular than those for “Britney Spears”?  As the television show lists the top three celebrity searches at Ask, viewers may find out.  Admittedly, life and death do not hang in the balance, and I can happily – even proudly – say that I’ve never sat through an episode of “Entertainment Tonight.”  Still, the move will get Ask some more exposure.

Also, the exposure will be relevant, and for Jim Lanzone, Ask’s CEO, that’s key.  Andrew Hampp describes an instance in which “Larry David was seen carrying an Ask.com shopping bag in an episode of HBO’s ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ last season, despite the fact that Ask doesn’t have any stores.”  Lanzone’s response, according to Hampp, was “WTF.”

Lanzone could be saying that acronym again once he sees the nation’s obsession with Hilton and Spears, but at least his search engine may be getting more traffic while this occurs.  Ask needs it – despite positive reviews from the likes of Walter Mossberg, the site is still far behind Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft.

Tags: Ask, Entertainment Tonight

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The updated Google Docs & Spreadsheets offers folders for organizing documents, along with a few new enhancements.

Google’s love of labels as organization method, especially in Gmail, tends to be a little jarring to people who have become used to folders. Those users will find something of a comfort zone in Google Docs and its newest update.

Folders have been a heavily requested feature for the service. They support drag and drop, just like a desktop interface.

Labels have been converted to folders in Google Docs with this update, as Google seems to have abandoned its attempt to make tagging the default way of organizing documents. This change makes Google Docs more consistent with the way a typical PC works.

Google also enhanced the search feature. It displays relevant docs and spreadsheets as one enters search terms into the form.

Googling Google blogger Garett Rogers complimented the new look and efficiency of the docs list, where these main changes have taken hold. He cited a couple of wish list items for Google Docs, namely a similar interface update for the word processor and spreadsheet, and support for offline functionality.

Google Docs, Web Applications

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In the final decision making process of buying an automobile, over half of consumers (53%) use the Internet as their main source for finding information about a vehicle they will purchase according to a DoubleClick Performics survey.

"Whether shoppers are gathering information three months in advance or narrowing their search three days before a purchase, the Internet is an ‘always on’ medium accessed by the majority of automotive consumers," said Nick Beil, vice president of sales and account management, DoubleClick Performics.

"More than ever, local dealers can benefit by using the Web not only as an educational tool, but to bring consumers into their virtual and brick and mortar showrooms."

When performing their automobile search, around half of consumers said they would visit a wide variety of Web sites such as consumer review sites, comparison sites, dealership sites, search engines and automobile company Web sites.

The most common search terms entered into a search engine query were brand name and model at 73 percent followed by automobile functions, such as speed or safety at 61 percent. Other popular search terms were state, city, zip code and dealership name.

"By implementing local search marketing strategies, there is opportunity for dealers to increase their contact with consumers," said Beil.

"While the automotive industry’s online advertising spend continues to rise, dealers utilizing search will improve their ability to impact consumers at every step in the purchase process."

Online AutoDoubleClick

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The Department of Justice has reached an agreement with Microsoft that will end a complaint made by Google about a Vista feature.

The Vista operating system produced by Microsoft has a feature called Instant Search. Vista users can submit a query with Instant Search to find items on the local hard drive containing those search terms.

Google felt this feature limited user choice of desktop search products, such as Google Desktop. The DOJ said its agreement with Microsoft resolves any issues raised by Google’s complaint.

Microsoft has to deliver certain fixes to Vista when it release the beta version of its first Service Pack for the new operating system before the end of the year. Justice listed them in its statement:

• Create a mechanism for end users and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to select a default program to handle desktop search and enable independent software vendors (ISVs) to register their desktop search products for this default in the same way that ISVs can register third-party Web browsers and media players as the default in Windows today;

• Ensure the default desktop search program will be launched whenever Windows launches a new top-level window to provide search results; and
• Inform ISVs, OEMs, and end users that the desktop search index in Vista is designed to run in the background and cede precedence over computing resources to any other software product.

Google’s chief legal counsel, David Drummond, told Bloomberg News the changes will be a step in the right direction, but need to be “improved further to give consumers greater access to alternate desktop search providers.”

Microsoft, Google, Vista, Instant Search, Justice Department

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In the UK, and particularly in Ireland, the social networking site known as Bebo is a big hit.  Apple’s also more than a little bit popular.  So it turned some heads when Apple announced a new arrangement that would involve both iTunes and Bebo.

Credit goes to the Financial Times – more specifically, to Maija Palmer – for breaking this story.  “From Wednesday, Bebo’s 8.8m users in the UK and Ireland will be able to buy music directly from the profile of any musician who has a Bebo profile and whose music is available on iTunes,” writes Palmer.

Let’s now spend a moment establishing what sorts of people those users are.  In short, they might be called fanatics.  This past March, Bebo was able to put out a press release declaring itself the most popular website in Ireland – ahead of even Yahoo and Google (and yes, Bebo had stats to back up this assertion).

Then, earlier today, Direct Traffic noted, “In terms of search terms, ‘bebo’ overtook ‘ebay’ to become the most popular UK internet search, demonstrating the popularity of the social networking site.”  Not bad.

Now there’s the deal with Apple, and Palmer notes that it’s the first time Apple has ever “linked iTunes to a social networking site.”  When Google sweeps in to buy up some tiny startup, it’s easy to see who’s benefiting, but in this case, it’s almost hard to say; Bebo and Apple should both reap large rewards from the deal.

Tags: Apple, Bebo, iTunes

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Substantial buzz has accompanied Jason Calacanis’ startup debut of Mahalo, a search site with human editors refining the results for the currently 4,000 top search terms.

Those terms should be in the neighborhood of 10,000 by the end of 2007, Mahalo noted in a statement about their debut as an alpha test of the service. Calacanis opened his blog post about Mahalo with 32 straight ‘Alphas’.

"Mahalo.com is in ALPHA–that means not ready for users, but looking for feedback," he wrote.

We’ve seen human-powered search before, notably with PreFound, which taps its userbase to recommend the best results for queries. Mahalo employs editors directly, and Danny Sullivan reminds us that Ask Jeeves once worked this way too.

At first glance, Mahalo looks like a Hawaiian-themed Yahoo, circa 1997, with its two-column layout of categories. Doing a query for one of the terms they have indexed, like Star Wars, returns results starting with The Mahalo Top 7 for it.

Icons may appear next to certain results. The thumb-and-pinky icon indicates a Guide’s Choice, while a yellow triangle with an exclamation point is a warning about the destination, like a site having pop-ups.

Once Mahalo hits its 10,000 search terms, it will enter its beta phase and formally launch shortly thereafter.

Mahalo, Jason Calacanis, Search Engine

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