Top 40 Web Searches for 2009

>>> Mirand Kerr, 37th in Top 40 of stuff searched forAs part of some research I started to do in putting together an entry for my Web site (that will be titled “Needs More Sex”—but more on that in a later post) I sort of needed to check out what were the top Web searches for 2009.

In trying to find the top Web pages for 2009 I found heaps of Top 10 and Top 20 lists. Some were from Yahoo, some were from Google, some from Bing, and then there were those that related to the UK, or USA, or India, etc.

So what I have tried to do is zipper these lists together into the one world-wide all-subjects all-search engines Top 40 Web searches for 2009. The resulting list is kind of interesting so I thought as long as I had taken the time and trouble to clean and collate the data that I may as well put the list to use and post it.

In all of the searches done in building this list I did not find another aggregated list like it, so, as far as I know, this list is somewhat unique. You will only find anything like it on this site. I am not claiming that it is perfect but it has taken the better part of 1.5 days to research and compile, and all care has been taken not to include any misleading or incorrect information. If you have any gripes about where I placed one of your favourites in the list then feel free to post a comment and let me know.

Rank	Search term(s)	Who or what is this?
1	Michael Jackson	No explanation needed.
2	Facebook	No explanation needed. But why search for Facebook when you just need to go to www.facebook.com to get there? Anyway . . .
3	Tuenti	An invitation-only private social networking website based in Madrid. Sometimes referred to as the Spanish Facebook.
4	Twitter	No explanation needed. But like Facebook, why search for Twitter? Anyway. Here it is.
5	Sanalika	Well I went to it. It is in some non-English language, and as far as I can work out it is a collection of Web-based games? Who knows?
6	Twilight	Books, DVDs, and soundtracks relating to the Twilight Saga. The brainchild of a Mormon housewife the Twilight Saga is a four book series about girls who like (love) vampires. Each book is carefully patterned after each of the four literary classics “Pride and Prejudice”, “Wuthering Heights”, "Romeo and Juliet”, and "A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. See also “New Moon” at number 19.
7	Lady Gaga	Singer and general personality. Just how she got this high in the various lists I have no idea.
8	Stephen Gately	One of the members of Boyzone. He died during the year.
9	Windows 7	Microsoft’s latest release of the Windows operating system. I don’t recall ever seeing Windows Vista on any Top 10 search lists. Microsoft would have to be happy with this.
10	Dantri	The dtinews site. I think this is a Vietnamese Newspaper site but it has an English translation version.
11	Swine Flu/ H1N1 virus	A virus (human, not computer).
12	Hulu	A site that streams out high-quality video of TV series and movies for minimum charge. It is currently locked by IP address to work only for residents of the USA.
13	Glee	A popular TV series.
14	Britney Spears	No explanation necessary.
15	Farrah Fawcett	Famous actress and pop culture icon that passed away in June 2009.
16	Naruto	Anime Magna TV series. Naruto is the name of a young kid with a serious secret. His quest: to become the mightiest ninja in the land. Addendum: My son advises me this is probably the most popular Anime series around.
17	Torpedo Gratis	I have no idea what this is. And it is not in Wikipedia so I can’t find out from there. Addendum: Thanks to seriously cute neice (SCN) I now know what this is. This is a Brazilian Web site for free SMS messages to cell phones.
18	Adam Lambert	Singer/songwriter (and actor) ‘discovered’ in the 8th season of American Idol.
19	New Moon	Movie about girls who really really like vampires.
20	Megan Fox	Extremely attractive actress staring in Transformers 1 and 2. Getting 9.7 million votes, Megan won sexiest woman in the world in FHM USA in 2008, but only managed runner-up in 2009. Megan is famous for saying “I have the libido of a 15 year old boy—my sex drive is so high”.
21	Cash for clunkers	A US government programme to replace fuel-hungry aging vehicles with newer, greener, more fuel efficient cars.
22	1911 census	I can only assume this if for the 1911 UK census site although I am not sure why it is such a popular search. If anyone know different then post a comment to let me know.
23	Billy Mays	Famous American pitchman (baseball) who passed away in June 2009.
24	Taylor Swift	Popular and attractive country/pop singer/songwriter. Taylor Swift was the world-wide top selling female singer of 2009.
25	Ashley Greene/ Alice Cullen	Ashley Greene is the actress that plays Alice Cullen in the Twilight film series.
26	Nokia N97	A popular fully-featured touch-screen smart phone from Nokia.
27	Spotify	Spotify is a site that sells on-line music, similar to Amazon.com and the Apple iTunes shop. Compared to iTunes the main difference with Spotify is that the music is generally ripped at a higher quality and available in formats other than the iTunes format.
28	Heath Ledger	A popular young actor that died in 2009. Heath played the role of the Joker in the highly successful Batman Returns movie.
29	iPhone	A fully-featured touch-screen smart phone.
30	American Idol	No explanation necessary.
31	eBay	No explanation necessasy.
32	Iran	A country. Obviously a very interesting county to come in 32nd overall in the Top 40 search terms.
33	Avatar	Box office record breaking movie. I have not seen it but I understand it is likely to knock Titanic off the top as the all time top earning movie.
34	Katrina Kaif	Bollywood actress, sometimes referred to as the “Barbie Doll of India”.
35	Patrick Swayze	Famous actor who died in September 2009.
36	Jon and Kate Gosselin	Former stars of the “Jon and Kate Plus 8”. The public destruction of their marriage was a big topic of interest.
37	Miranda Kerr	A famous and very attractive Australian model. Miranda is one of the models for Victoria's Secret.
38	Tiger Woods	Hmmm. Famous golfer and even more famous womaniser.
39	Susan Boyle	Susan Boyle is a Scottish singer who was discovered as part of “Britain’s Got Talent” TV show. Susan came second to Taylor Swift as the world-wide top selling female singing artist for 2009.
40	Amanda Knox	This is an odd one. It seems Amanda Knoxwas put in prison for the murder of Meredith Kercher in Italy in Nov 2007. This is a UK Top 10 fetch and I am not too sure why Amanda had so many search terms against her.

Some of the sites checked in researching and compiling the Top 40 list

The Washington Post: Top Google Searches of 2009 (here)

The Huffington Post: Top Google Searches of 2009 (here)

About.com: The Top Google Searches of 2009 (here)

Shinyshiny.tv: Top Google Searches of 2009 (here)

The UK Telegraph: Google and Bing Revel Year’s Top Searches (here)

BBC News: Stephen Gately Tops Goodle Searches for 2009 (here)

Hitwise: Top 20 Sites and Engines (here)

Mashable: Top 10 Bing Searches of 2009 (here)

Techwyse: Top Searched Terms for 2009 (here)

The UK Daily Record: Stephen Gately the most searched for name on the Internet (in the UK) (here)

Search Engine Watch: What People Search For (here)

Democratic Underground: Britney Spears Most Searched Yahoo Topic (here)

Observations

>>> Megan Fox, No 20 on the Top 40 search termsI am not too sure why sites like Facebook, Tuenti, and Twitter are searched for. You would think that people would just go directly to the site (e.g. www.facebook.com or www.twitter.com). But it seems that a lot of people must go to Google or Bing, do a search, and then go to Facebook, etc., from the search results. Rather odd really. But this then explains why these sites get so high in the search terms list.

Interesting that Windows 7 makes it into the list. But on reflection I guess there probably was a huge amount of interest all through the year up until Windows 7 was finally released. Then since the release there has probably been a lot of people searching about Windows 7 to see how to upgrade, and if the computer they have can be upgraded.

I learnt a few things from this list. I had never heard of Hulu (No. 12)—not that it turns out to be that useful as it only works for users in the USA. Also the Vietnam Newspaper site Dantri (No. 10) looks interesting. I will be going back there from time to time. And the 1911 Census site in the UK, which I can only assume is what the No.22 item relates to. I have already done a few searches on distant relatives that came over from England to see if they are mentioned.

If there is a mystery search in the list it is No.17—Torpedo Gratis. If anyone knows what this is then please leave a comment. I could not find this in Wikipedia and a Google search for it really did not help. So, the obvious question is, what were people who used this search term looking for, and did they find it?

Barry