While we all sit around and twiddle our thumbs in the run-up to what’s historically the worst news week of the year, Google has cut through the mountains of stats with its search zeitgeist for 2011.
The top ten lists below reveal the UK’s fastest rising search topics, the top auto-fill answers for ‘What is…’ searches, the most searched-for individuals and the UK biggest losers (in many ways).
Plus, we've added in the top search terms specifically, top ten searches on news.google.co.uk and the top food & drink brands. And no, we don’t know who Darren Criss is either.
The UK's fastest rising search topics for 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
The UK's top 'What Is…?' searches of 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?
The UK's fastest rising people searches for 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
The UK's fastest falling people searches for 2011
1. Nick Clegg
2. Maradona
3. Alicia Keys
4. Heidi Montag
5. Alexandra Burke
6. Hayley Williams
7. Joe McElderry
8. Stephenie Meyer
9. Robert Pattinson
10. Shakira
Top UK searches in 2011
1. Facebook
2. YouTube
3. Hotmail
4. Ebay
6. Google
7. BBC
8. Amazon
9. Argos
10. Yahoo
UK News Top 10 (top searches on news.google.co.uk) for 2011
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
Top food & drink searches in the UK for 2011
1. Asda
2. Recipes
3. Tesco
4. Sainsburys
5. Pizza
6. Chicken
7. Chocolate
8. Dominos
9. Morrisons
10. Argos
Head of Marketing & Social Business at EnergySys
12:44PM on 15th December 2011
Pizza, Chicken, Chocolate, Dominos. What a nation of gourmets we really are! ;-)
However, I must have missed the last catalogue update - slightly surprised to see that Argos is a food and drink search.
A fascinating list, thanks Vicky.
Regards, David
Head of Marketing & Social Business at EnergySys
12:45PM on 15th December 2011
One day I'll spell your name right first time, Vikki.
Head of community at TMW
12:47PM on 15th December 2011
No worries David, it happens all the time :)
1:01PM on 15th December 2011
Dear o dear. What does this say about us? And why are so many people wondering what piles are?! ...surely they've been around for a while...
6:40AM on 16th December 2011
Strange I thought Samsung Galaxy S2 would be one among it. It was revolutionary smartphone this year.
8:50AM on 16th December 2011
Google plus is missing on the list :)
Head of EMEA Marketing at Venda Limited
5:03PM on 19th December 2011
I'm amazed that the #6 search on Google was for Google. Are people really too lazy to move the cursor to the address bar?