Google’s Zeitgeist 2012: Michael Phelps, Tom Daley, Ryan Lochte and the 2012 London Olympics

By Steven V. Selthoffer Chief European Columnist

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, January 6. WITHIN a bike ride of some of the top swim teams in the United States, Google Inc., announced its annual Zeitgeist for 2012.

Google analyzed more than 1.2 trillion searches in 146 different languages to show what the world searched for in the year 2012. They also combined the search topics into a highlight reel with a montage of photos and video, including Michael Phelps, to give an overview of the most searched topics in 2012.

Zeitgeist 2012: Year in Review

The Google Zeitgeist list is comprised of the Top 10 searches made by individuals globally, drawn and categorized into 12 different and most popular categories including: Searches, Images, Athletes, Events, People, Feature Films, TV shows, Performing Artists, Consumer Electronics, Airlines, Google + Hashtags, and Videos.

In the Athletes category, after winning his 18th gold medal and 22nd medal overall in swimming, the world's greatest Olympian, Mr. Michael Phelps, USA, managed to net only a second place behind Chinese-American basketball player Jeremy Lin. It's tough overcoming someone like Lin in a search contest. He has an automatic fan base of more than 1.1 billion Chinese fans who await his every Twitter tweet and any sudden announcement of changes and song updates to his iPod playlist.

Also making the Athletes Top 10 search list in a respectable seventh place was multiple European and World Championship gold medalist, and London 2012 Olympic bronze medalist, 10m platform, British diver, Tom Daley, UK, with our own Mr. Ryan Lochte, USA, anchoring the list coming home in 10th place.

In overall Searches, the London Olympics 2012 came in seventh to Whitney Houston's first place. In Events the London Olympics came in 3rd to Hurricane Sandy in the top slot. In the Google + Hashtags the #Olympics were number six.

And in the category everyone was waiting for… Video, the Canadian hit video sensation “Call Me Maybe,” featuring Justin Bieber came in fourth to the world-record setting, “Gangman Style,” running away with top honors.

Ahhhhhhh… Yes. We know what you were hoping for… It was a disappointment for the US Olympic swim team carrying everyone's hopes and dreams with their own “Call Me Maybe” performance in the most searched/viewed Video category not making the Top 10, but, then again, they didn't go to the London Olympics to sing and dance. They went to dominate, setting records that really mattered. So, maybe next time everyone.

For more information, please see: Zeitgeist 2012 http://www.google.com/zeitgeist/2012/#the-world

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x