Current Google Insights trends: Egypt, World Star Hip Hop, the Super Bowl

(AFP)

Several websites in this week's Google Insights trends were either directly or indirectly linked with the events currently taking place in Egypt. Other popular searches related to the highlight of the American football season, the Super Bowl, and the website worldstarhiphop.com.

The French language version of Facebook ( www.facebook.fr) was the top Google Insights trend this week. The majority of the searches for "facebook.fr" originated from Tunisia and Algeria though a significant proportion also came from within France.  

Given the timeline and the origin of these searches, the popularity of facebook.fr can most likely be attributed to the role of the social networking site in the recent Tunisian uprising and expression of solidarity with protesters in Egypt; regular uses of the page also probably contributed to the results.

Internet users keen to find out the latest news regarding the protests in Egypt propelled the country into second position in this week's charts.

The music site World Star Hip Hop trended in fourth position this week. Shortly after the site went offline on January 24, rapper 50 Cent tweeted that he was responsible for taking it down in retaliation for the site using his image in its advertising. Despite 50 Cent's dubious claims, worldstarhiphop.com is currently back online.

The biggest American football event of the year, the Super Bowl, trended in seventh position. The event is due to take place February 6 and will see the AFC champions Pittsburgh Steelers face NFC champions Green Bay Packers. When asked, President Obama refused to firmly favor one side over the other - his January 27 interview on the Super Bowl can be seen at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjpNkzfOwMQ.

Arabic term "????? ??????" translates in English as "seventh day." The phrase is most likely related to the protests currently taking place in Egypt, which have just entered their seventh day.

Italian term " calciomercato" translates in English as "transfers" and is linked to the current winter transfer season gripping Italian football.

Other popular search terms this week include " ösym," the Turkish public body responsible for organizing national university exams; US government taxation agency the "IRS"; French social benefits site "CAF.fr" and " hotmail iniciar sesion," Spanish for Hotmail login.

The search terms with the most significant growth worldwide in the last seven days as measured by Google Insights, recorded on January 31 at 9:00 AM GMT, are:

01.   facebook.fr (+400%)
02.   egypt (+150%)
03.   ösym (+100%)
04.   worldstarhiphop (+80%)
05.   hotmail iniciar sesion (Hotmail login) ((+50%)
06.   irs (+50%)
07.   super bowl 2011 (+50%)
08.   ????? ?????? (seventh day) (+50%)
09.   caf (+40%)
10.   calciomercato (transfers) (+40%)