What Africans searched for in 2010
INTERNET
By BiztechAfrica - Dec. 17, 2010, 7:41 a.m.
Google has released its annual Zeitgeist report on top online search terms for the year.
Google’
s 2010 Zeitgeist results reveal the top search terms globally as well as a few country-specific results.
Apart from South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria were the only other Africa countries listed in detail.
Facebook, Yahoo and Google featured as one of the most popular search items in all three countries.
The report said that in the year of Nigeria’
s 50th independence celebration, it was unsurprising that terms like “
Nigeria”
and “
Goodluck Jonathan”
ranked highly in the search trends.
But the nation’ s imagination was certainly captured by social networking, with “ 2go” topping the fastest rising list, and “ Facebook” being the second most popular search by volume. Nigerian musicians “ Terry G” and “ Dagrin” also attracted significant online interest.
Nigeria: Top 10 most popular search items
1.
Nigeria
2.
Facebook
3.
Yahoo
4.
news
5.
yahoomail
6.
Google
7.
mail
8.
Nokia
9.
love
10. MTN
Kenyans this year showed strong interest in social networking sites and virtual realities, with “
2go”
topping the fastest rising list, and local superhero “
Makmende”
coming in second. Meanwhile, the “
Commonwealth Games”
topped Kenya’
s fastest rising sports search, unsurprising given Kenya’
s long history of excelling in athletics and this year bringing in 32 medals
Kenya: Top 10 most popular search items
1.
Kenya
2.
Facebook
3.
Yahoo
4.
mail
5.
yahoomail
6.
jobs
7.
Gmail
8.
Google
9.
love
10.
news
Despite being the year of the FIFA 2010 World Cup, that big event was outranked in Google fastest rising searches by teen sensation “
Justin Bieber”
as well as South Africa’
s latest rap-rave hotshots, “
Die Antwoord”
. But the central place of both soccer and politics in South African hearts was reflected in the fastest rising news searches, with “
bafana”
and “
kaizer chiefs”
clocking in alongside “
malema julius”
and “
zuma”
.
South Africa: 10 most popular search terms
1.
Facebook
2.
Gmail
3.
Google
4.
gumtree
5.
jobs
6.
Yahoo
7.
Youtube
8.
Absa
9.
games
10.
news
For more, go to www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2010/
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