Top Web Searches of 2012
As we move into 2013, we’re going to take a look back at 2012 by featuring the top searched terms and people from this past year. This is an interesting (and nostalgic) means of seeing what made the news and resonated with people. For this year in review I’m using two sources, the Experian Marketing Services and Google’s Zeitgeist 2012. I took a similar look back at 2011 at the beginning of 2012.
Both lists used different guidelines to tabulate their results. Google “studied an aggregation of over one trillion searches (or queries) that people typed into Google Search this year. [They] used data from multiple sources, including Google Trends and internal data tools. [They] filtered out spam and repeat queries to build lists that best reflect the spirit of 2012.” Where as “Experian Marketing Services analyzed the top 1,000 search terms from Hitwise data for 2012.”
I’ll start off by sharing the top searched terms, worldwide, of 2012 according to Google:
Whitney Houston- Gangnam Style
- Hurricane Sandy
- iPad 3
- Diablo 3
- Kate Middleton
- Olympics 2012
- Amanda Todd
- Michael Clarke Duncan
- BBB12 (Big Brother Brazil)
The deaths of pop-star Whitney Houston and actor Michael Clarke Duncan were obviously newsworthy and the suicide of Canadian teen Amanda Todd due to bullying was also an international trending topic.
The Experian Marketing Services’ top ten searched terms were a little different:
- Youtube
- Craigslist
- Facebook login
- Facebook.com
- Yahoo
- Ebay
- www.facebook.com
- mapquest
- amazon
This list show us that the Facebook is still king when it comes to all social media networks. Surprisingly, Twitter wasn’t mentioned at all.
The Top public figure searches by Experian Marketing Services’ list were:
- Whitney Houston
Justin Bieber
- Justin Beiber
- Kim Kardashian
- Nicki Minaj
- Bobbi Kristina
The same list from Google (once again) had different results:
- Whitney Houston
- Kate Middleton
- Amanda Todd
- Michael Clarke Duncan
- One Direction
- Felix Baumgartner
- Jeremy Lin
- Morgan Freeman
- Joseph Kony
- Donna Summer
Whitney Houston was the only one who made both lists.
According to Experian Marketing Services the top searched TV shows were:
- American Idol
- Dancing with the Stars
- The Voice
- The Bachelor
- South Park
According to Google, the top searched TV shows were:
BBB12 (Big Brother Brazil)- Avenida Brasil
- Here Comes Honey Boo Boo
- The Voice
- American Idol
- Game of Thrones
- Homeland
- Revenge
- Cheias de Charme
- Carrossel (Brazilian telenovela)
What both lists illustrate is that reality television once again dominated the airwaves in 2012.
The top movie titles searched according to Experian Marketing Services were:
- Breaking Dawn – Part 2
- Magic Mike
- The Dark Knight Rises
- Prometheus
- Dark Shadows
Google’s worldwide list for movie titles was:
- The Hunger Games
- Skyfall
- Prometheus
- The Avengers
- Magic Mike
- John Carter
- Ek Tha Tiger
- Paranormal Activity 4
- Taken 2
- Dark Shadows
Oddly, only Prometheus, Dark Shadows and Magic Mike overlapped, despite the huge fan followings of movies like The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 and The Hunger Games.
The purpose of lists like these are about more than just having a fun look back at the previous twelve months. Marketers can use this information of what events, people, shows and products attracted the attention of the general public in their future planning.
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