Shortly after Yahoo released its list of the year’s top searches, Google has announced the results of its annual zeitgeist report, revealing the most popular search terms of 2010 by region and worldwide.
The search giant analyzed billions of searches performed in 2010 and compared them with searches from 2009 to surface emerging trends. Chatroulette, the iPad and Justin Bieber were the three fastest-rising search terms in 2010; Twitter and Facebook also made the list, at numbers eight and 10, respectively.
Among the items of interest that lost the world’s attention in 2010 were swine flu, Stephanie Meyer’s novel (and the accompanying movie) Twilight: New Moon, Susan Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire, “MySpace layouts” and Michael Jackson.
The iPad was the emergent search winner in the consumer electronics category, followed by the iPhone 4, Nokia 5530, HTC EVO 4G and Nokia N900.
In terms of news searches, Haiti proved the most popular, followed by Turkish sports club Besiktas, Chile, “earthquake,” Lady Gaga and the iPhone 4. The Gulf of Mexico oil spill ranked 10th.
If you’re interested in learning more about what consumers searched for on Google in 2010, check out the company’s microsite, which includes tools to help you dig deeper into the data. For a more general overview of the year, I’d suggest watching the video above.
(cross: mashable.com)