2010 Halloween Costumes: Avatar, Iron Man, Lady Gaga & Snooki Are Hot!

What are you going as for Halloween? If you’re dressing as Lady Gaga or Jersey Shore’s Snooki, perhaps think again. According to both Google and Hitwise, those are among the most popular Halloween costumes out there. And for dog owners, Yahoo has a take on dog costumes.

“Rising” Costume Stars, From Google

Google’s annual blog post on Halloween costumes has just come out. It lists “rising” costumes according to what people are searching for. These aren’t the most searched for costumes but rather ones that showing out-of-the-ordinary interest spikes.

The list?

• 2010 halloween costumes [breakout]
• snooki costume [breakout]
• avatar costume [+800%]
• iron man costume [+200%
• lady gaga costume [+150%]
• mad hatter costume [+70%]
• costume express [+60%]
• womens halloween costume [+60%]
• peacock costume [+50%]
• wonder woman [+50%]

Those percentages and “breakout” designations? They tells how much interest has spiked in these topics since the beginning of 2010.

Breakout means they’ve come from out of nowhere. Those with percentages mean these aren’t new queries but ones that have greatly increased.

So “snooki costume” searches? Those aren’t something Google really hadn’t seen much of before on before, while “avatar costume” had some popularity and is now skyrocketing higher.

Mixed in among the others are terms that are growing in popularity but aren’t really costumes, such as “costume express” as a place that sells them or “2010 halloween costumes,” which are people seeking general information.

Last Minute Panic: Easy Costumes Needed

The data comes from the Google Insight tool scanning queries since the first of the year.

Change the time frame to the last week, and you see something much different:

• easy halloween costumes
• easy costume ideas
• easy halloween costume
• cheap costume ideas
• nerd costume
• american apparel
• chicago costume
• good costume ideas
• homemade halloween costumes
• costume stores

Clearly, people are panicking now over the past week. They need “easy” ideas or things they can make at home, or local stores since it’s probably too late to get things mailed out. How about being a ghost?

Yahoo’s Got Your Dog Covered

Over at Yahoo, they’ve got a list out of top dog costumes:

• Batman dog
• Ewok dog
• Slinky Dog
• Yoda dog
• Taco dog

Those are based on search activity. There’s also a list of popular costumes for humans:

• Disney characters, including all of the princesses and Toy Story characters
• Lady Gaga (plus the incredible meat dress and the bubble dress)
• Pirate
• Alice in Wonderland
• Masquerade

Baby & Toddler Costumes

Hitwise also gathers data about what people are searching on, and it put out a press release with information today. It says that searches for baby and toddler costumes were up 100 percent and 50 percent, respectively, over the past four weeks.

Top costumes for little ones?

• vampire
• tinkerbell
• peter pan
• cow
• strawberry shortcake
• pink poodle

As for generic costumes, the popular list includes:

• queen of hearts
• catwoman
• mad hatter
• gypsy
• tinkerbell

Hitwise said that among the most popular celebrity-related costume ideas were:

• lady gaga costume
• snooki costume
• nicki minaj costume
• michael jackson costume
• katy perry costume
• justin bieber wigs

And the last minute crowd? According to search activity, those looking for homemade costumes are most likely to be going as:

• pirate
• mummy
• scarecrow

Photo credit: Lady Gaga costume from Naomi Lir. Snooki & The Situation from Jax House. Sad face ghost from Joe Goldberg. Bat Hound from istolethetv. Cow from edenpictures. Queen Of Hearts from Lorena Cupcake. All used under Creative Common license.