Google’s annual ‘Zeitgeist’ list was released today,
revealing the year’s top and fastest rising entries on the eponymous search
engine. The Royal Wedding unsurprisingly was the fastest rising search term, while
everyday internet staples Facebook, YouTube and Hotmail held the top three
places in overall UK searches – making the Zeitgeist live up to its name as ‘the
spirit of the times’.
Although the fastest rising people list offers no surprises
- with the likes of Ryan Dunn, Amy Winehouse and Steve Jobs all appearing due to
their sad demises in 2011 - it’s the
fastest falling people list that makes for the most interesting reading.
Made
up of those people whose names have seen the biggest decrease in search volume
over the year, we take a look at the list and those who fell from Google grace
in 2011.
1. Nick Clegg
To be fair to the deputy PM, his name
probably received a spike of search queries last April in wake of the first
televised pre-general election debates – presumably prefixed with “who is” –
putting him at an instant disadvantage in this year’s list.
2. Maradona
During the 2010 Football World Cup England
fans were presumably looking for someone to blame for their appalling performance,
and who better to dig some dirt on than old Hand of God himself, especially
since the team he was managing seemed to be doing so much better than us. As for this year then, does this mean web-surfing
footie fans are getting over that great injustice of 1986? Not likely.
3. Alicia Keys
As she once sang, “no one, no one, no one…” is ever going to
search for you. But seriously, 2011’s ten-year celebration of Songs in Minor failed to make as much of
a splash as her marriage to producer Swizz Beatz last year and the subsequent
blessing of their unborn child at a Zulu ceremony in South Africa. Hanging out
with Bono probably didn’t help too much either.
4. Heidi Montag
“Who?” I hear you ask. A non-celebrity to
start with, finding fame on brat pack pseudo-reality show The Hills, the
blonde-bombshell’s ‘fame’ seems to have waned in negative correlation with the
frequency of her cosmetic surgery procedures and spats with on-off husband
Spencer Pratt.
5. Alexandra Burke
When it comes to former X Factor winners
(take note Little Miss) people are constantly in need of a reminding who they
are, so it’s slightly puzzling as to why Burke features in this list. Perhaps
people were afraid that if they typed in her name they might be in danger of
having to hear her murder another untouchable song.
6. Hayley Williams
After the pint-sized pop-punk pixie from
Paramore had her phone hacked and topless pictures of her were leaked via
her Twitter feed in 2010, greasey-fringed emo-kids must have sent searches for her name through the roof. With two members down and no
album to their name in 2011, Paramore had a quieter year as their lead singer
paid more attention to her professional online presence.
7. Joe McElderry
The second former X Factor winner in the
list. After being dropped by Simon Cowell’s record lable SyCo and turning to
reality TV in the guise of Popstar to
Operastar, Joe looks dangerously like he’s wandering into Steve Brookstein
territory.
8. Stephenie Meyer
Before the Twilight Saga was turned into several
two-hour sessions of intense silences, lip bighting and heavy breathing (nevermind CGI werewolves), it was actually a series of novels. Not that Google
users remember this, as the books’ author – a sort of mormon answer to JK
Rowling – has slipped down search rankings, with young Twilighters presumably favouring
an image search for Taylor Lautner’s torso.
9. Robert Pattinson
Stephenie Meyer’s demise can’t be put down
entirely to the world’s teenagers’ apathy toward the written word though, as
the pasty-faced star chosen to play her novels’ hero on the silver screen has
also slipped down Google’s most wanted. Maybe it’s got something to do with his
‘interesting’ experiments with facial hair.
10. Shakira
You’d have thought being invited (and
subsequently declining) to sing at the birthday party of the widely feared Chechen
president Ramzan Kadyrov would be enough to keep the Colombian she-wolf’s
search queries high. But according to Google’s data, this is not the case – and
hits don’t lie.
VIEW GALLERY
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