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Yahoo searches: a year in review
JUDGING BY SEARCH FIRM Yahoo's UK review of the year, we UK citizens are obsessed with money - watching, winning, and trying to make it - and ladies.
The top five UK searches were FTSE, National Lottery, Job Centre, Katie Price and Cheryl Cole, which, when taken at face value is pretty depressing. Although all were popular last year the FTSE, in first place, is a new entry and perhaps reflects a population that has become more interested in the local economy.
The rest of the top ten are made up of the TV shows Eastenders, X Factor and Big Brother, the Iphone 5 and Kate Middleton, both of which are tagged as a new entry.
"Even in a year that saw the Royal Wedding, UK riots, the phone-hacking scandal and death of Colonel Gaddafi, the antics of the celebrities still appears to interest us more than hard news," says Yahoo on its web site in a statement that we read through teary eyes.
Perhaps not sensing how badly we were taking the news, Andy Williams, Yahoo!'s editorial director added, "Our search data for 2011 shows that crisis and celebrity continue to fascinate Britons, with other news barely getting a look in."
"The top three Yahoo! Searches of FTSE, National Lottery and Job Centre indicate a country worried about its economic future and dreaming of get-rich quick schemes. Our love-affair with celebrity even beats our respect for the monarchy - our searches show that a real-life princess in the shape of Kate Middleton isn't as interesting as our reality royalty of Katie Price and Cheryl Cole."
The cult of celebrity extends through the results and tops the most searched for newslist with the grubby Ryan Giggs Twittergate scandal. This, Yahoo tells us, was five times more interesting to its users than the London riots and more important than the phone hacking scandal. Although, to be fair, that Giggs stuff was interesting.
Overall though, the most searched for international news event was the death of Gaddafi, which is a bit more interesting that footballers bedding babes, and the most searched for brand was Apple, something that might explain why its Iphone 5, which turned out to be the Iphone 4S, is in the top ten. µ
Tags: Internet
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If you think about it most of the time anything you are obsessed with you would not have to look for really would you? You'd already be in the know, it's more stuff people hear mention and wonder 'what is that all about' that makes them search.
Although that is skewed in statistics by fans who make a link to 'news about [favorite]' which they visit every time they turn the computer on I guess.