2010 Google Zeitgeist South Africa
Despite being the year of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, the soccer spectacle was outranked in Google’s fastest rising searches by teen sensation, Justin Bieber, as well as South Africa’s latest rap-rave hotshots, Die Antwoord.
The ‘Bieber’ also tops the list of fastest rising people searches this year, with Afrikaans ‘zef’ rapper, Jack Parow, coming in at number three. Music is clearly more important than politics as Parrow is placed ahead of ANC Youth League leader, Julius Malema, who claims the number six spot. Reality TV queen, Kim Kardashian and controversial rap artist, Eminem, are placed seventh and ninth respectively.
Malema also features on the list of fastest rising politician searches at pole position, followed by perennial favourites, Nelson Mandela and President Zuma. Although he’s been keeping a fairly low profile, former South African President, Thabo Mbeki, comes in at number four followed by Western Cape Premier and DA (Democratic Alliance) leader, Helen Zille. Patricia de Lille, whose party (the Independent Democrats, ID) merged with the DA this year, is placed seventh on the list. She is outranked by Fikile Mbalula, the recently appointed Minister of Sports and Recreation, who fills the number six spot.
The devastating earthquake in Haiti dominated world headlines earlier this year, as well as Internet news searches. ‘Haiti’ tops the list of fastest rising news searches for 2010 ,followed by another appearance by Julius Malema, ‘earthquake’, ‘Bafana’ and ‘Nelson Mandela’. Sport still resonates strongly with South Africans, as reflected by ‘soccer’, ‘World Cup’ and ‘Kaizer Chiefs’ featuring on the list.
Our boys, Bafana Bafana, do however claim the number one spot on the list of fastest rising World Cup-related searches, with the Brazilian soccer team coming in second, followed by ‘flags of countries’. Shakira’s Waka Waka comes in at number five and Paul the late psychic World Cup octopus, fills the number six position – wonder if he saw that coming? The vuvuzela was certainly the rising star of the football tournament ,with the most searches for the instrument originating from Kwa-Zulu Natal, followed by Gauteng and the Western Cape. Searches focused on pictures of the vuvuzela, mp3 downloads of vuvzela noises and vuvuzela manufacturers.
Web lyric searches also reveal what South Africans have been singing along to during the past twelve months. Lyrics to ‘Airplanes’ the smash hit by B.o.B, featuring Hayley Williams from Paramore and Eminem, seem to be the most popular with South African music lovers, alongside ‘Bedrock’ by Lil’ Wayne and ‘Deuces’ sung by Chris Brown.
With more and more South Africans turning to their phones to browse the Internet it is not surprising that Facebook and MXit top the list of mobile searches, along with song lyrics and games. Interestingly, it seems that mobile users have been looking for ‘love’ in 2010 with the search term appearing in fifth place.
In addition to telling us what people are curious about in South Africa, Google Zeitgeist tools also offer insight into which topics were of interest across the globe. Top search terms from over fifty countries appear on our Google Zeitgeist webpage,http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2010/— from political figures in the United States, to news searches in the United Kingdom.
This year’s global fastest rising searches show interest across social networking, technology and pop culture.
Global fastest rising queries, 2010
- chatroulette
- ipad
- justin bieber
- nicki minaj
- friv
- myxer
- katy perry
- gamezer
To see more information about Google Zeitgeist across the globe, take a look at the site: http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2010/
Fastest rising searches, South Africa, 2010
- justin bieber
- nicki minaj
- toptv
- locnville
- die antwoord
- yahoo sign in
- powerball results
- news24.com south africa
- moshi monsters
- afrihost
Popular searches, South Africa, 2010
- Gmail
- Gumtree
- Jobs
- Yahoo
- YouTube
- Absa
- Games
- News
Fastest rising searches, people, South Africa, 2010
- justin bieber
- nicki minaj
- jack parow
- drake
- julius malema
- shakira
- kim kardashian
- cristiano ronaldo
- eminem
- lil wayne
Fastest rising politician searches, South Africa, 2010
1. Julius Malema
2. Nelson Mandela
3. Jacob Zuma
4. Thabo Mbeki
5. Helen Zille
6. Fikile Mbalula
7. Patricia de Lille
8. Siyabonga Cwele
9. Nathi Mthethwa
10. Siphiwe Nyanda
Fastest rising news searches, South Africa, 2010
- haiti
- malema julius
- earthquake
- bafana
- nelson mandela
- world cup
- cape town
- soccer
- zuma
- kaizer chiefs
Top mobile searches, South Africa, 2010
Fastest rising song lyrics searches, South Africa, 2010
- Airplanes lyrics
- Bedrock lyrics
- Deuces lyrics
- Justin Bieber lyrics
- Lyrics waka waka
- not afraid lyrics
- omg lyrics
- pyramid lyrics
- rude boy lyrics
- stereo love lyrics
Fastest rising World Cup searches, South Africa, 2010
- Bafana bafana squad
- brazil soccer team
- flags of countries
- park and ride
- shakira waka waka
- world cup octopus
- world cup concert
- fan parks
- world cup flags
- world cup songs
Zeitgeist Explained
Google reveals the internet “Zeitgeist” (German for “the spirit of the times”) through an exploration of the billions of search queries we receive each year. In addition to the Year-end Zeitgeist, which highlights the top trends of 2010, we also have several tools that give insight into global, regional, past and present search trends. Google Zeitgeist tools can never be used to identify individual users because we rely on anonymized, aggregated counts of how often certain search queries occur over time. These tools are available year-round for you to play with, explore, and learn from: www.google.com/zeitgeist