Google reveals search habits of Britons

Google has released a report which gives an insight into Britain's online browsing habits, listing the terms most commonly searched on its site this year. Or, at least, the clean ones.

According to the Google Zeitgeist 2010, the video chat site Chatroulette was the UK's fastest rising search term, while tickets to see the re-formed band Take That were the most commonly searched in their category. Perhaps reflecting the higher voter turnout at this year's general election than in 2005, the top two searches in the news category were "election 2010" and "register to vote".

The top overall searches, however, were dominated by the big sites; the top three are "Facebook", "BBC" and "Youtube".

The lists are collated in an attempt to give a snapshot of the country's online interests.

"Zeitgeist means 'the spirit of the times' and we strive to capture this spirit through exploring the year's new and exciting search terms," said a Google spokesman, adding: "Searches for adult keywords are pretty constant, and although unquestionably popular, we don't think they define the Zeitgeist for any one year."

The data, collected anonymously, counts the overall most popular as well as fast-rising search queries typed into the Google.co.uk search box. Other trends include an apparent keen interest in the divorce of Cheryl and Ashley Cole, which outstripped the concern for the end of Tiger Woods' marriage to Elen Nordegren.

There was also a large rise in the number of people searching for information about Kristian Digby, the BBC presenter who died in mysterious circumstances, and about the US teen singer Justin Bieber.