Accidental Blogger

Internet search engines like Google and Yahoo have gathered the data on what web surfers were looking for in 2008 - a compendium of collective curiosity. In fact Goolgle calls its rankings "Zeitgeist"– a window into the public mind, at least the public that had access to the Internet. Not surprisingly, politics and pop culture scored high on the list, as did spellings and web based social networks. Barack Obama and Britney Spears did well with Americans and Palin was a hit with the international crowd.

Pop diva Britney Spears and President-elect Barack Obama captivated Americans in 2008, judging from their top rankings in the annual lists of the top 10 search terms from Yahoo and Google.

The findings show a public simultaneously obsessed with frivolity and politics.

But they also leave the door open to debate. Both companies used tracking methods that virtually guaranteed the lists would be packed with pop culture.

Reflecting the importance of this year's presidential campaign, Obama led Google's U.S. top 10 list. In an act of bipartisanship, the Republican Party also made the rankings, with conservative favorite Fox News at No. 6 and Sarah Palin, the former vice presidential candidate, at No. 7.

Internationally, Palin, who was showered with attention during the campaign and skewered weekly on "Saturday Night Live," was an even bigger superstar. She placed No. 1 on Google's global list, compared with Obama's No. 6 – no doubt a minor consolation prize to the Republican ticket losing the election….

Year-end lists are a way for search companies to showcase the data they collect every day about the billions of queries they field. In some cases, they share the information – dissected by day, week or month – with marketers to help them gauge how much buzz a product is getting online.

Search engines are quick to emphasize that queries they analyze are anonymous.

Over the years that I have spent watching the stat counter, I too have found it fascinating to ponder the subject matters readers are looking for when they stumble upon our blog.  I have no accurate data on the most popular Google, Yahoo or Ask.com searches for our blog but some stand out more than others. Our regular readers (who have not bothered to bookmark us or put A.B. on feeds like Google Reader or Bloglines) usually search for Accidental Blogger, Ruchira Paul or a combination of the two. Some also search by the names of the other authors. The most popular random searches appear to be for the following words in different categories linked to the posts that turn up as a result.

Food and Drink:

Ghost Pepper
Kosher Coke
Schmaltz
Belly Stuffing

Authors and Artists:

Sinclair Lewis
South Asian writers
Edward Hopper
Paul Klee

Personalities:

Benazir Bhutto (one post among others)
Dianna Abdala or Bla Bla Bla (yes, she is still on the minds of people)
Barbara Forrest
Swami V (this post also shows up in the search, "Evolutionary Pressure," which would fall in the science category) 
Vandana Shiva 

Health, Medicine, Science & Technology:

Autism
Gardasil
HIV Research
Melamine
The most important moments in science

Cultural trends and ideas:

Jewish IQ (this one goes either here or here)
Masculinity
Different Hair cuts
Family Pictures

Sex and Nudity:

Eros
Babes
Bad Sex
Sujatha nude photos(I have no idea which posts show up in response to this query. Probably the entire archive of Sujatha's posts :-)

Many searches leading to our blog begin with the word "accidental" which is followed by several different words, taking the readers to random posts containing the second word.

The article in the SF Chronicle linked above also has this to say for Google and Yahoo's tracking methods that favor pop culture over other curiosities.

For an unadulterated window into the American psyche, Ask.com's list is probably the best bet. Called the "real deal," it's touted as an unedited ranking of the most popular search terms, minus the massaging done by others.

"Dictionary" led Ask.com's rankings, highlighting the frequent struggles many of us have with spelling and definitions. MySpace was No. 2 while Google was No. 3, showing that people are simply using the search box as a de facto address bar.

I fully agree. If my own search patterns are any indication, people probably search far more often for spellings and minor pieces of information to merely discover or confirm, than they do following the life styles of media idols and celebrities. But then, I am a mature woman and my ears are not exactly attuned to the latest buzz in popular culture.

And now a question: why does the spell check tool on Type Pad which is a blogging service, point to blog, blogger and blogging as misspelt words? A bit of a contradiction, isn't it?