iPlayer is UK's favourite search term

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 10 Dec 2008 at 16:52

Google has released its annual round-up of the year's most searched terms, underlining the British public's obsession with the iPlayer and Facebook.

The web giant compiles the Zeitgeist report from the millions of search queries it receives every day to highlight the top trends of 2008.

The BBC had a good year, coming second in the fastest rising search terms, with iPlayer topping the most searched phrases list, beating Facebook into second place.

The fuss over the Large Hadron Collider also had people Googling in droves, propelling the search term to sixth in the fastest rising list, ahead of Barack Obama.

In fact, Obama had a bad year by Google's reckoning. He was less popular than both Gordon Brown and David Cameron in the UK, and vice president hopeful Sarah Palin globally. Palin also managed to top the global list of fastest rising search terms, ensuring she won at least one popularity contest this year.

Other global preoccupations included the Beijing Olympics and Heath Ledger's death, which ranked second and fifth on the list respectively. The economic downturn also played its part with "money saving expert" and "hot uk deals" topping the finance charts.

The UK's top ten Google searches

1.Facebook
2.BBC
3.YouTube
4.eBay
5.Games
6.News
7.Hotmail
8.Bebo
9.Yahoo
10.Jobs