Katrina Kaif, Sania Mirza and Rahul Gandhi were the most searched celebrities on Google India in 2009, presumably implying that more and more young users are coming online and ruling the cyber space.
The Internet search giant today announced its year-end Google Zeitgeist (which means ‘the spirit of the times’) for 2009. The list, in its third year in India, gives a glimpse of events, moments and trends that shaped the year.
Ranked in order of the queries with the largest volume of searches, global economic downturn and local implications were clearly on India’s mind as Budget 2009 and the Satyam share price emerged as the fastest rising queries. Connecting with friends continued to be top priority for Indians, as social networking sites attracted significant interest on mobiles, as well as the web. Young politicians such as Rahul Gandhi and Sachin Pilot were hailed as the new face of political leadership in the country.
| GOOGLE ZEITGEIST INDIA LIST FOR 2009 |
| MOST POPULAR MOBILE QUERIES IN INDIA |
| * Orkut |
| * Katrina Kaif |
| * Aishwarya Rai |
| MOST POPULAR SPORTS STARS |
| * Sania Mirza |
| * Sachin Tendulkar |
| *John Cena |
| MOST POPULAR HOLIDAY DESTINATIONS |
| * Matheran |
| * Kerala |
| *Goa |
“Considering our mobile search traffic for 2009 has quadrupled as compared to the last two years put together, this year we have put additional focus on users who access Internet through their mobile phones. Google search on mobiles is still based on ‘entertain me’, while on computers it is based on ‘educate me’,” said Vinay Goel, Head of Products, Google India.
| MOST POPULAR CELEBRITIES |
| * Katrina Kaif |
| * Michael Jackson |
| * Salman Khan |
| MOST POPULAR POLITICIANS |
| * Rahul Gandhi |
| * Indira Gandhi |
| * Sachin Pilot |
| HOW TO |
| * How to kiss |
| * How to hack |
| * How to meditate |
With corporate woes and recession news, more people looked for ways to meditate and concentrate. Romance scored over action, fantasy and drama - with Love Aaj Kal emerging as the most searched movie of the year. Katrina Kaif ruled the minds of Indians for the second straight year, while ‘mobile’ Indians keyed in queries on cricket to stay abreast with their favourite sport.
“This year’s list shows a diverse range of searches, reflecting that the user is getting more sophisticated. Moreover, with the family structure changing in India, a lot of adolescent kinds of personal questions are also being asked,” added Goel.
For 2010, Goel said that as the Internet gets more mainstream, it will become the “be all-end all of information”, especially searches on mobiles, which is expected to become more diverse.