Google’s top searches show what defined 2006

Canadian PressTORONTO — Online social networks, Borat’s American invasion, Paris Hilton, and the definition of promiscuous were among the top subjects that people wanted to learn more about in 2006, according to Google’s annual list of top searches.

Google processes billions of searches each month and calls the results the zeitgeist — a “general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era.”

Bebo and Myspace were the top two searches in 2006, showing the increasing popularity of social networks among young web surfers.

Alexa Internet, which tallies web hits and maintains a list of the most popular sites, says Myspace is the No. 5 site on the Internet — and the top ranked non-search engine — but competitor Bebo at No. 168 was the most popular Google search of the year.

Myspace has become an online hangout for young people to chat with friends and easily post blogs and music, and has also evolved into a marketing tool for celebrities and bands. Bebo is following in that mould and seems to be gaining ground, especially overseas.

The World Cup, which is the most-watched sporting event in the world, drew the third-most search results. With an estimated 5.9 billion viewers worldwide, the soccer tournament’s search numbers easily surpassed those of the Super Bowl, World Series and Olympics.

Surprisingly, video-sharing website YouTube didn’t make Google’s top 10 list, but a similar site, Metacafe, placed at No. 4. One of the site’s gimmicks is to pay users for original content that is viewed more than 20,000 times. The site says Toronto-based stunt team Real Stunts has earned $25,277 for a clip that’s been viewed more than five million times.

Rounding out the top 10 searches were radioblog, a web program that’s used to play music or sound on websites; Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia; the generic term video, which results in about 1.37 billion matches to sort through; Rebelde, a Mexican miniseries soap opera; Mininova, a search engine for downloading music, movies, TV shows and programs; and wiki, a term that refers to a collaborative website that can be edited by many users.

The top Google search term for news articles was Paris Hilton, who made headlines all year for a rift with former “The Simple Life” co-star Nicole Richie, the release of her self-titled debut CD, an arrest for allegedly driving under the influence, and for simply being Paris Hilton.

Orlando Bloom, cancer, podcasting, hurricane Katrina, bankruptcy, Martina Hingis, autism, the 2006 NFL draft and celebrity Big Brother 2006 made up the rest of the top 10 Google News searches.

Google also broke down some common questions posed by web surfers, and more than anyone else, people wanted to know “who is Borat?” The TV and movie character, played by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, was the star of the hit comedy “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.”

People were also curious about Hezbollah, Capote, Mohammed and Buckethead.

Web users asking for definitions were most curious about the word promiscuous, which perhaps had something to do with the hit song by Canadian songstress Nelly Furtado. Computer terms Ajax and Web 2.0, the acronym ftw, and harlequin were also often asked about, and the other five of the top 10 definition searches were for the Spanish words for administration, philosophy, quality, science and test.

Google users were also more curious about the wedding of Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban than the nuptials of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, showed more interest in the divorce of Paul McCartney and Heather Mills McCartney than the breakup of Britney Spears and Kevin Federline, and wanted to know most about the death of Aaron Spelling, followed by Kirby Puckett.

Google doesn’t compile a year in review for Canadian searches, but in November, Ebay was the top search term followed by Myspace, Wikipedia, Mapquest, Britney Spears, games, Nexopia, dictionary, facebook, 411, Runescape, Future Shop, Air Canada, Canadian Tire and video.

Google won’t release its search numbers, but according to Nielsen/NetRatings, it consistently garners just under half of the Internet’s web searches, and in November processed almost 3.1 billion searches — about 100 million a day, or 1,157 a second.