What made Britain tick during 2012?
Well apparently Olympic related themes have dominated the year’s most popular UK Google search terms. According to Google’s Zeitgeist report, London was the most searched for city on Google Maps, the next Olympic host, Rio de Janeiro the most searched for travel destination, Stella McCartney the top trending designer and Muse track Survival among the top songs.
On a similar theme, synchronised swimming was the most searched for sport and other top tens include wheelchair basketball, volleyball, archery, gymnastics and cycling.
Even our obsession with US stars seems to have waned this year with 6 out of 10 top trending people being British. In fact, Kate Middleton came in fourth in overall search terms during 2012 but one wonders if she might have made it into a medal position, following the furore around her pregnancy announcement.
I saw a headline last week (pre X-factor finals), referring to Gary Barlow as being one of the UK’s sweethearts but having lost the X factor – this double entendre may be true but he appears in three of Google’s top ten lists, so not so ‘over’ as the mainstream media may think.
As per last year’s list, more fun can usually be had with the ‘how to’ and the ‘what is’ top tens.
The slightly eclectic mix of what is love, icloud, 3g, scientology, instagram, autism and diabetes all feature on the ‘what is’ list.
The retro/make do and mend culture, perhaps stemming from the fragile state of the economy or Kirsty Allsop, seems to be spilling over into search: How to make, crochet and knit all feature – none of which appeared in last year’s list.
Perhaps we’re all becoming a sensitive bunch – whilst how to flirt is still mid way on the how to list, how to snog, has been replaced with how to kiss! How to meditate and sing also show our softer side.
How to draw is the top of the bunch – which doesn’t exactly make us sound like an exciting nation. I was hoping for something a bit more thrilling because – YOLO. (You Only Live Once – featuring at number eight on the ‘what is’ list – to save you the time of Googling it.)
Well worth a read if you want to find out more about the inner workings of UK brains, but for the geeks amongst you, here is the top techy search terms for your viewing pleasure.:
Top tech trends:
1. Netflix
2. ipad 3
3. iPad mini
4. moviestarplanet
5. Kik
6. Pottermore
7. Moshi monsters login
8. Samsung Galaxy s3
9. Superbia
10. Diablo 3
