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What did you search GOOGLE for in 2008?
Posted on 01/02/2009 9:42:29 AM PST by Lucky9teen
Ok...ok...it's late, I know.
I'm on vacation, what do you want?
But since it's the first Friday of 2009, I'm sure we all need silliness, so better late than never...
Every year, Google compiles a huge list of its top searches; this list is known as the Google Zeitgeist. Literally billions of searches have been sifted through to find trends, events, and newsworthy items that capture the happenings of 2008 in one concise package. Let's take a look at some of the more interesting data from Google's top searches of 2008.
The Top Searches Around the World
The top Google searches overall were as follows:
1. sarah palin
2. beijing 2008
3. facebook login
4. tuenti
5. heath ledger
6. obama
7. nasza klasa
8. wer kennt wen
9. euro 2008
10. jonas brothers
Obviously, the US presidential election was a big topic this year, as well as the Beijing Olympics, the tragic death of actor Heath Ledger, and the teen trio known as the Jonas Brothers.
U.S. Top Searches
Not surprisingly, the presidential election was in many searchers' minds this year, along with social networking sites and multimedia.
1. obama
2. facebook
3. att
4. iphone
5. youtube
6. fox news
7. palin
8. beijing 2008
9. david cook
10. surf the channel
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Beat the ping! WooHoo!
Ready to get silly
Google this week admitted that its staff will pick and choose what appears in its search results. It's a historic statement - and nobody has yet grasped its significance.Not so very long ago, Google disclaimed responsibility for its search results by explaining that these were chosen by a computer algorithm. The disclaimer lives on at Google News, where we are assured that: The selection and placement of stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program.
A few years ago, Google's apparently unimpeachable objectivity got some people very excited, and technology utopians began to herald Google as the conduit for a new form of democracy. Google was only too pleased to encourage this view. It explained that its algorithm "relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. "
And now back to silly:
A Trekkie Christmas:
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the ship
Not a circuit was buzzing, not one microchip;
The phasers were hung in the armoury securely,
In hope that no alien would get up that early.
The crewmen were nestled all snug in their bunks
(Except for the few who were partying drunks);
And Picard in his nightshirt, and Bev in her lace,
Had just settled down for a neat face to face...
When out in the hall there arose such a racket,
That we leapt from our beds, pulling on pant and jacket.
Away to the lifts we all shot like a gun,
Leapt into the cars and yelled loudly “Deck One!”
The bridge red-alert lights, which flashed through the din,
Gave a lustre of Hades to objects within.
When, what on the viewscreen, our eyes should behold,
But a weird kind of sleigh, and some guy who looked old.
But the glint in his eyes was so strange and askew,
That we knew in a moment it had to be Q.
His sleigh grew much larger as closer he came.
Then he zapped on the bridge and addressed us by name:
“It’s Riker, It’s Data, It’s Worf and Jean-Luc!
It’s Geordi, And Wesley, the genetic fluke!
To the top of the bridge, to the top of the hall!
Now float away! Float away! Float away all!”
As leaves in the autumn are whisked off the street,
So the floor of the bridge came away from our feet,
And up to the ceiling, our bodies they flew,
As the captain called out, “What the Hell is this, Q?!”
The prankster just laughed and expanded his grin,
And, snapping his fingers, he vanished again.
As we took in our plight, and were looking around,
The spell was removed, and we crashed to the ground.
Then Q, dressed in fur from his head to his toe,
Appeared once again, to continue the show.
“That’s enough!” cried the captain, “You’ll stop this at once!”
And Riker said, “Worf, take aim at this dunce!”
“I’m deeply offended, Jean-Luc” replied Q,
“I just wanted to celebrate Christmas with you.”
As we scoffed at his words, he produced a large sack.
He dumped out the contents and took a step back.
“I’ve brought gifts,” he said, “just to show I’m sincere.
There’s something delightful for everyone here.”
He sat on the floor, and dug into his pile,
And handed out gifts with his most charming smile:
“For Counsellor Troi, there’s no need to explain.
Here’s Tylenol-Beta for all of your pain.
For Worf I’ve some mints, as his breath’s not too great,
And for Geordi LaForge, an inflatable date.”
For Wesley, some hormones, and Clearasil-plus;
For Data, a joke book, For Riker a truss.
For Beverly Crusher, there’s sleek lingerie,
And for Jean-Luc, the thrill of just seeing her that way.”
And he sprang to his feet with that grin on his face
And, clapping his hands, disappeared into space.
But we heard him exclaim as he dwindled from sight,
“Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good flight!”
I’m already sick of captcha alphanumeric codes (especially when they are twisted). At least let me screw up a password before prompting me to enter one.
Does that come in beefcake?
I want a do over!
Beware of tripping over, sunbathing topless, cheating on your partner in public... - if there's a Google van passing by, the evidence will be forever set in a 360-degree photographic panorama and posted online for all to see.Google's ever increasing mapping applications are getting ever-increasingly closer to our personal lives. Suspicious minds won't need to bother with private detectives - they can simply log on to Google Maps and access the pedestrian-level view of the entire city - if they're lucky enough to live in Milan, Paris, or the majority of the US, New Zealand, Australia or Japan... Otherwise, not long to wait - Google Street View is soon to arrive in the UK and looks set to pan the entire world.
A curator holds up a mummified cat in Sydney in preparation of an exhibition of ancient Egyptian artefacts. An Australian man has been arrested in Egypt after allegedly attempting to leave the country with a 2,000-year-old preserved cat and other antiquities in his suitcase. (AFP/File/William West)
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