Comments on: Zeitgeist!

Zeitgeist!

sillygwailo — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 14:23:20 -0800

I'm pretty obsessed with my sites' stats , but I have nothing on Google's Year-End Zeitgeist. There's an ebb and flow for various celebrities searched in Google, and looks like Iraq became a major issue in August of this year. And looks like "Las Ketchup" is huge in Germany at the moment. There is also a huge (and, quite frankly, cool) timeline of 2002 searches. I *heart* Google. via google-friends

By: Ynoxas

Ynoxas — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 15:14:46 -0800

I wonder if J.Lo is bothered by the fact that she's the #1 searched for woman but her man Ben comes in at a paltry #7? I want this guy's job at Google.

By: dazed_one

dazed_one — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 15:17:54 -0800

I wonder how "The Hamster Dance" rated on google during its time in the spotlight.

By: risenc

risenc — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 15:19:01 -0800

"Las Ketchup"? Who are they? "The Ketchup Song"? Man, I need to get back to Europe ...

By: i_cola

i_cola — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 15:24:36 -0800

Damn...I'm trying so hard not to know what 'Las Ketchup' is apart from having something to do with one of those annual music crimes that usually happen after the summer here in the UK.

By: eyeballkid

eyeballkid — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 15:34:04 -0800

February proves that curling rules.

By: Caffine_Fiend

Caffine_Fiend — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 15:46:09 -0800

Interesting stats. For anyone interested in looking back at Google's Zeitgeist from 2001, check it out here.

By: fuzz

fuzz — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 15:47:53 -0800

Las Ketchup is this year's Macarena. We suffered through it nonstop all summer here in Spain, now it's your turn. Be very afraid.

By: Pancake Overlord

Pancake Overlord — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 15:59:00 -0800

As long as you avoid commercial radio, you should be able to avoid the Ketchup crap. It's working for me, anyway...

By: qDot

qDot — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 16:17:02 -0800

You know. Whenever I get all pissy about living in the US, Europe always manages to remind me why their stinky, foriegn flavor of CRAP is somehow worse than what we have here. Give me a totalitarian conservative state where I have overbearing politicians and "faith-based" initiatives over countries that produce stuff like this. The Taliban wouldn't of made stuff like this, now would they? HUH?! HUH?! HOW'S THAT OPRESSION SOUND NOW, EH?! Anyways, being my sheltered, uneducated, xenophobic American self, I too was wondering "WTF is Las Ketchup?!". So, I hit the link. Clicked around, all I could find was weird bottles of ketchup and something about a song. Thank you, CBS Morning: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/10/18/earlyshow/leisure/music/main526093.shtml So, read the article, sounds... dumb. Yet, I was not satisified. I watched the video. Holy god, we are nuking the wrong people. The song seems to be about some foreign bastard who can't seem to get down with The Sugar Hill gang and therefore must completely butcher Rapper's Delight, along with some gyrations that are easy enough for most of the EU to do, apperently. We're fine with the beer and electronic music, Europe. But keep this stuff to yourself please. In other news: Wow. Shakira is way more popular than I thought. Google statistics really make you wonder what the hell the rest of the internet going world is thinking.

By: alms

alms — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 16:44:15 -0800

A friend who was previously a VP at Lycos says that they circulated the top fifty search items every day and every week. But there was a catch. There were really two top fifty lists. The real top fifty lists mostly represented innovations in pornography. The additional top fifty list was generated so that they'd have something to discuss and publish that had some content other than sex. It would be interesting to see Google's unexpurgated Zeitgeist. Wankgeist?

By: Hildago

Hildago — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 21:46:44 -0800

The term "zeitgeist" comes from the German "Zeit" meaning "time" and "Geist" meaning "spirit". The term is defined in English by Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary as "the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era." 1. spiderman 2. shakira 3. winter olympics 4. world cup 5. avril lavigne Yeah, that sounds about right. I don't know what I was expecting. Hate to sound like a snob, but man, I have better taste than everybody in the world.

By: Hildago

Hildago — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 21:56:00 -0800

Also, I don't know what those Japanese people are thinking, ???? is way hotter than ??.

By: saintsguy

saintsguy — Fri, 13 Dec 2002 04:58:31 -0800

Wouldn't it be great if the Zeitgeist was searchable? That is, you enter a search term and you can trace its ebb and flow over however many months you want. Now THERE'S a project for Google Labs! I think the Zeitgeist can serve as a useful tool - you can actually trace the path of the Las Ketchup craze using the Zeitgeist. There must be other, similar, more useful applications.

By: Fabulon7

Fabulon7 — Sat, 14 Dec 2002 08:09:32 -0800

Hate to sound like a snob, but man, I have better taste than everybody in the world. Amen, brother.