2009 Year-End Google Zeitgeist
Another year has come and gone and, as always, we're taking a moment to look back at the happenings of 2009 - the people, events and memories that made this year unique. Each year, we examine the billions of queries that people around the world have typed into Google search to discover the zeitgeist - the spirit of the times. As we welcome the new year, we hope that you enjoy this glimpse of the past.
Michael Jackson
Fastest-Rising (Global)
Fastest-Rising in Entertainment (Global)
Fastest-Rising in Food & Drink (Global)
Fastest-Falling (Global)
Fastest-Rising in Sports (Global)
Methodology
To compile the 2009 Year-End Zeitgeist, we studied the aggregation of billions of queries that people typed into Google search this year. We use data from multiple sources, including Insights for Search, Google Trends and internal data tools. We also filter out spam and repeat queries, to build up lists that best reflect "the spirit of the times". All of the search queries that we studied are anonymous - no personal information was used.
Except where noted, all of these search terms are most popular for 2009 - ranked in order of the queries with the largest volume of searches this year. In some cases, we list the "fastest-rising" queries, which means that we found the most popular searches conducted in 2009 and then ranked them based on how much their popularity increased compared to 2008. Conversely, "fastest-falling" queries were very popular in 2008, but dropped in popularity in 2009.