Top of the charts

It's perhaps the most looked forward to announcements for the year. Often referred to as a barometer of our times,Googles annual zeitgeist is one fun way to look back at the years most happening people and of course moments and also see what us Indians were searching through the year.

Rahul Gandhi to Katrina Kaif,cheaper tickets to how to kiss – Google Indias Search Zeitgeist for 2009 is out and heres what everyone was searching for!

It’s perhaps the most looked forward to announcements for the year. Often referred to as a barometer of our times,Googles annual zeitgeist is one fun way to look back at the years most happening people and of course moments and also see what us Indians were searching through the year. The end of the year is a time when most of us look back in retrospect on moments and patterns that defined our year. The Google India Zeitgeist provides a reflection of what was on peoples minds in 2009, mentions Google Indias head of products,Vinay Goel as he goes on to add,Besides serving as a great indicator of what made news through the year,Zeitgeist 2009 also provides a unique perspective on what clicked with people and the way they consumed information on the Internet. Given the fact that mobile search traffic for 2009 on Google India quadrupled as compared to the last two years put together,the search engine put additional focus on users who accessed the Internet through their mobile phones.

Interestingly,to compile the 2009 Year-End Zeitgeist,Google studied the aggregation of billions of queries people typed into Google search in 2009. As Goyal explains,data from multiple sources,including Insights for Search,Google Trends and internal data tools were used. Spam and repeat queries were also filtered out to build out lists that would best reflect the spirit of the times. All of the search queries we studied are anonymous – no personal information was used, the head honcho asserts. So now that we have stepped into a new year,its time to hit the rewind button and see what scored on the worlds most popular search engine. First come the clichés,Rahul Gandhi is the most popular politician,Sania Mirza is the most popular Indian sports star,Katrina Kaif continues to rule the hearts of Indians online for two consecutive years,beating even Michael Jackson and Love Aaj Kal was the most searched film. A closer look at the analysis and it seems that global economic downturn and local implications were clearly on Indias mind as Budget 2009 and Satyam share price emerged as the fastest rising queries. Connecting with friends continued to be top priority for Indians as social networking sites attracted significant interest on the mobile as well as on the World Wide Web. With corporate woes and recession becoming more fact than fiction,an increasing number of people looked for ways to meditate and concentrate on the Internet. Ok,now time for the surprising bits. It seems the best way to book tickets for travel is online as Netizens flocked the Indian railways website to book their tickets online. Also,Mobile searches witnessed a surge,and email and video sharing edged out social networking as the most popular destination site. Another chart topper was the fact that a lot of us researched products online prior to making purchase decisions! As far as travel searches go,the quaint hill station of Matheran beat popular destinations like Kerala and Goa to emerge as the most searched destination of 2009! Speaking of topping the list,in the How to search queries,How to kiss was the front runner followed by How to hack! And if it werent searching for cheap air tickets,the shopping searches saw Buy antivirus in the Top Buy list of queries. And if you still havent found what you were looking for,then happy searching in 2010!

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Top of the charts

It's perhaps the most looked forward to announcements for the year. Often referred to as a barometer of our times,Googles annual zeitgeist is one fun way to look back at the years most happening people and of course moments and also see what us Indians were searching through the year.

It's perhaps the most looked forward to announcements for the year. Often referred to as a barometer of our times,Googles annual zeitgeist is one fun way to look back at the years most happening people and of course moments and also see what us Indians were searching through the year.