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A Year in UK Search: Google’s Top Searches of 2011

Royal Wedding, Adele and Groupon top this year’s Google Zeitgeist

UK, Thursday 15th December 2011

Today, Google announced its annual Zeitgeist, offering a unique perspective on this year’s major events and hottest trends based on internet searches conducted in the UK in 2011. The Royal Wedding eclipsed everything as 2011’s fastest rising search query while the nation’s princess Kate Middleton featured in the top ten fastest rising people.

Music/film/TV

As pop princess Adele shot to superstardom on the music scene, she also topped the list of fastest rising people searches, second only to the late Jackass star Ryan Dunn. Teen flick Breaking Dawn topped the fastest rising movies list, leaving Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in its shadow. And, despite the departure of Simon Cowell, X Factor is in the top position as the fastest rising TV programme.

Celebs

Fresh from his notorious stint as MC of the Golden Globes, Ricky Gervais was the only male to break into the top ten celeb list. It wasn’t only the Royal Wedding that got people searching either; US reality star Kim Kardashian’s 72 day marriage to Kris Humphries made her the most searched celebrity of 2011 in the UK.

…and more serious pursuits!

Serious searches topped the “what is” and “how to” query lists, with British searchers keen to learn “what is AV” as they researched their choices in the alternative vote referendum, and “how to revise” to help them through the exam season.

Fastest rising searches in 2011

  1. Royal wedding
  2. iPhone 5
  3. Fifa 12
  4. Groupon
  5. iPad 2
  6. Ryan Dunn
  7. Adele
  8. Minecraft
  9. Rebecca Black
  10. Ed Sheeran

Fastest rising people in 2011

  1. Ryan Dunn
  2. Adele
  3. Rebecca Black
  4. Ed Sheeran
  5. Amy Winehouse
  6. Charlie Sheen
  7. Steve Jobs
  8. Kate Middleton
  9. Nicki Minaj
  10. Darren Criss

How to (top searches for ‘How to’ in 2011)

  1. How to revise
  2. How to snog
  3. How to reference
  4. How to wallpaper
  5. How to draw
  6. How to sleep
  7. How to flirt
  8. How to geek
  9. How to pronounce
  10. How to shuffle

What is (top searches for ‘What is’ in 2011)

  1. What is AV
  2. What is scampi
  3. What are truffles
  4. What are piles
  5. What is 4d
  6. What are cookies
  7. What is copyright
  8. What is zumba
  9. What is icloud
  10. What is probate

Fastest rising movies in 2011

  1. Breaking Dawn
  2. Final destination 5
  3. Mean girls 2
  4. True grit
  5. Conan the barbarian
  6. Scream 4
  7. The Inbetweeners
  8. Little fockers
  9. Transformers 3
  10. Unstoppable

Fastest rising sports terms in 2011

  1. Haye vs Klitschko
  2. Olympic tickets 2012
  3. Arsenal transfer
  4. Six Nations 2011
  5. Wimbledon 2011
  6. Grand National 2011
  7. Wrestlemania 27
  8. Copa America 2011
  9. Randy Savage
  10. Dan Wheldon

Top Food & Drink

  1. Asda
  2. Recipes
  3. Tesco
  4. Sainsburys
  5. Pizza
  6. Chicken
  7. Chocolate
  8. Dominos
  9. Morrisons
  10. Argos

Top Travel Destinations

  1. Las Vegas
  2. New York
  3. Disneyland Paris
  4. Jamaica
  5. Orlando
  6. Barbados
  7. Hawaii
  8. Caribbean
  9. Florida
  10. Cuba

Top UK searches in 2011

  1. Facebook
  2. YouTube
  3. Hotmail
  4. Ebay
  5. Google
  6. BBC
  7. Amazon
  8. Argos
  9. Yahoo
  10. Tesco

News Top 10 (top searches on news.google.co.uk)

  1. BBC News
  2. Arsenal
  3. Facebook
  4. YouTube
  5. Cheryl Cole
  6. iPhone 5
  7. Liverpool
  8. Kate Middleton
  9. Manchester United
  10. Justin Bieber

Fastest rising football searches in 2011

  1. Anzhi Makhachkala
  2. Arsenal transfer
  3. Liverpool rumours
  4. Joey Barton twitter
  5. Sky Sports transfer
  6. Fifa ultimate team
  7. Eric Abidal
  8. Copa america 2011
  9. Billy Sharp
  10. Demba Ba

Top celebrities in 2011

  1. Kim Kardashian
  2. Victoria Beckham
  3. Emma Watson
  4. Scarlett Johansson
  5. Jennifer Aniston
  6. Britney Spears
  7. Megan Fox
  8. Ricky Gervais
  9. Jessica Jane
  10. Angelina Jolie

Fastest rising TV programme in 2011

  1. X Factor 2011
  2. Apprentice 2011
  3. X Factor usa
  4. NCIS season 9
  5. House season 8
  6. Glee season 3
  7. Thundercats 2011
  8. Big Brother 13
  9. Supernatural season 7
  10. Smallville season 10

Top tickets

  1. Train tickets
  2. Cheap tickets
  3. 2012 tickets
  4. Theatre tickets
  5. Ticketmaster
  6. BBC tickets
  7. Concert tickets
  8. O2
  9. Liverpool tickets
  10. Leeds tickets

Bargain hunting (top cheap searches 2011)

  1. Cheap flights
  2. Cheap holidays
  3. Cheap hotels
  4. Cheap tickets
  5. Cheap insurance
  6. Cheap cars
  7. Cheap breaks
  8. Cheap shoes
  9. Cheap dresses
  10. Cheap clothes

About Google Inc.

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.

Contact

Name: Anoek Eckhardt
Telephone number: 0207 881 7688
Email address: anoek@google.com

Zeitgeist Explained

Google reveals the internet “Zeitgeist” (German for “the spirit of the times”) through an exploration of the billions of search queries we receive each year. In addition to the Year-end Zeitgeist, which highlights the top trends of 2011, we also have several tools that give insight into global, regional, past and present search trends. Google Zeitgeist tools can never be used to identify individual users because we rely on anonymized, aggregated counts of how often certain search queries occur over time.

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