Google Trends has started a new monthly "spirit of the times" Top Charts feature with more than 40 categories of Top 10 lists that include people, places and things ranked by search interest. According to today's post from Google's Official Blog, the Top Charts go back to 2004 and will continue to be updated monthly. You can find the Top Charts link from the Google Trends homepage on the left-hand side of the site. While Google states that the Top Charts include their most accurate search volume rankings, they note that no algorithm is perfect and anomalies in the data may be found on rare [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | Google: Trends | Search & Society: General

Following today's explosions at the Boston Marathon, social media channels were immediately swamped with reports, graphic images and videos from the scene. Race officials immediately held runners on course, and canceled the rest of the event. During tragic events like this, it's hard to determine what's official and real information until it is verified by law enforcement. Until then, people are searching for the status of runners while cell networks are overloaded and/or shut down due to on-going security concerns. Family/friends of runners have been able to use checkpoint tracking to see [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search & Society: General

Mobile-location based advertising network xAd joined forces with mobile call measurement provider Telmetrics to release their first U.K. Mobile Path-to-Purchase study, focusing on U.K. mobile search behavior. Conducted by Nielsen, the online study, surveyed 1,500 U.K. smartphone and tablet users to measure consumer search activity on mobile devices. While price comparisons and reviews were the leading mobile research activities in the U.K., users performing restaurant and automotive searches on smartphones were most often looking for location or local contact information. According t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Search & Society: General | Search Ads: Mobile Search | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | Search Marketing: Mobile | Stats: General | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

Once in every five times that someone clicks a search result, it goes to one of five websites: Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo, Wikipedia or Amazon. That leaves about 80 percent of search clicks for the rest of us. Going further, the top 500 websites received almost 50 percent of all clicks from search results, and the top 10,000 websites got almost 75 percent of all search clicks. All of this is according to the 2013 Digital Marketer Report from Experian Marketing Services (Hitwise). The company says that those five sites I listed above combined to get 20.07 percent of all clicks from US [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | eBay | Facebook | Features: Analysis | Google: YouTube & Video | Search & Society: General | Stats: Hitwise | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

When it comes to getting general news and information, consumers worldwide put as much trust in search engines as they do in traditional media -- and more in both than they do in social media. But, the numbers don't portray any single source as highly trusted, which suggests that consumers are at least trying to vet the accuracy and trustworthiness of what they find in today's information-saturated world. The data comes from the recently released 2013 Edelman Trust Barometer, the 13th annual global survey that uses data from "informed publics" -- college-educated individuals in upper inc [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: Analysis | Google: Knowledge Graph | Google: Web Search | Microsoft: Bing | Search & Society: General | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

Journalists call them headlines; SEOs call them titles and headings. Whatever you call them, they're the words that tell someone that your article is what they want to read. Look at Google News any day of the week for examples of headlines that give you absolutely no idea what the article might be about. Search engines don't know what to rank them for; users don't know whether to click. One trend I watch is that of searchers asking what time things start. For any event, you can be sure that searchers will take to Google to find out the start time. I chronicle this every year, for instance, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: Analysis | Search & Society: General | SEO: Titles & Descriptions | Top News

Although there's long been a debate over the accuracy of health information online, many U.S. Internet users aren't hesitant to use the Web when they want answers to health-related questions. And rather than dedicated health sites, the vast majority of them begin their research at a search engine. A new study out tonight from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project says that 72 percent of U.S. Internet users have gone online in the past year specifically for health-related information, and 77 percent of that group says their research started at Google, Bing or another [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Search & Society: General | Search Engines: Health & Medical Search Engines | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

Don't worry, Google's year in review for 2012 isn't that predictable for the once in a lifetime calendar event. On the official Google 2012 Zeitgeist website, you'll find their biggest list ever published, with a total of 838 lists from 55 countries, covering 1.2 trillion searches done worldwide. Digging in deeper, Google has divided the massive data set into two major buckets: Trending Searches: What was hot in 2012? The "trending" queries are the searches that had the highest amount of traffic over a sustained period in 2012 as compared to 2011. Most Searched: What topped Google’s [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | Features: Analysis | Google: Trends | Search & Society: General | Stats: General

Screen related searches are the backbone of Yahoo!'s year in review lists, as actors, actresses, talk show personalities and reality TV celebrities seem to command a bigger presence year after year. In the most popular TV searches on Yahoo! in the US, perennial favorite American Idol dominated top slots in several categories of Yahoo's top search trends for 2012. Interestingly, singer/actress and former American Idol judge J-LO, was the only music personality to appear in the top 10, no mention of fellow exiting co-star, Steven Tyler, though searches for "aerosmith tour" did spike on [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search & Society: General | Yahoo

Correlation does not equal causation? Only on the Internet can you find crazy recipe and food searches filled with the most fattening, sugary and downright disgusting sounding combinations, followed by searches for 'diabetes symptoms' and quick fix weight loss diets. I've highlighted some of the possible SERP suspects below. Here's a suggested search for all Yahoo! users in 2013: Top Searched For Recipes On Yahoo! in 2012: chicken recipes crockpot recipes halloween recipes vegetarian recipes salmon recipes beef stew recipes zucchini recipes eggplant recipes cake [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search & Society: General | Yahoo

The London Olympics were the #7 most popular search on Yahoo! overall in 2012, Even Mckayla Maroney has to be impressed with that. Searchers were flipping and flying as high as Gabby Douglas for any official games coverage on Yahoo in 2012. Top Searches for 2012 Olympians On Yahoo! maria sharapova lolo jones serena williams hope solo mckayla maroney caroline wozniacki leryn franco michael phelps misty may‐treanor aly raisman Standout Sports Searches On Yahoo! In 2012: olympics opening ceremony kim mulkey makes NCAA history australian open ekaterina mak [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search & Society: General | Yahoo

For 2012, Kim Kardashian might have been the overall top searched for celebrity, but there were many people to watch and track through various forms of media and paparazzi. Top Searched Celebrity Couples Who Broke Up In 2012 Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony Scarlett Johansson and Nate Naylor Heidi Klum and Seal Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis Chad Johnson and Evelyn Lozada John Cena and Elizabeth Huberdeau Vera Wang and Arthur Becker Top Searched Reality TV Stars On Yaho [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search & Society: General | Yahoo

Last year, Yahoo! celebrated ten years of sharing its annual Year In Review feature, marking the occasion by releasing 30 categories of the most popular searches on Yahoo! in 2011, one of the biggest lists up to that point in time. For 2012, Yahoo! one-upped themselves by providing us with the top 10 most popular searches in over 50 categories, giving us a mega list of the most common queries and questions asked by Yahoo! searchers over the last year. Vera Chan,Yahoo!  senior editor and Web trend analyst, has possibly the 2nd best job at Yahoo! next to Marissa Mayer, as she has been in [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Features: General | Search & Society | Search & Society: General | Top News | Yahoo | Yahoo: Search

Ask.com's 100 million users remain almost as loyal as Twihards, prompting us to ask if searchers are on Team Jeeves or Team Diller when putting in their queries. For the 2012 installment of the series in hot searches, Ask added a new twist to the searcher saga, layering in a thicker plot and seeking a more satisfying end to the year by putting context around searcher motivations and perceptions about the most popular headlines. For the first time ever, the top asked questions are accompanied by select insights from an online survey, 2012: What’s on America’s Mind?, conducted within [...]

Related Topics: Ask | Ask: General | Ask: Web Search | Channel: Search | Search & Society: General | Top News

Oh baby, baby, baby oh... Sorry Biebs, you better believe you just got Kanye'd off the top searched celeb spot by Kim Kardashian. Ouch. But if you were her boyfriend... oh never mind. Let's get on to the good stuff that Bing announced earlier this evening, the big list of 2012 Bing Trends. Bing's biggest list to date includes nineteen categories, nearly doubling their hottest search topics in 2011, which was already a marked improvement over just two main celebrity search categories in 2010 and in 2009, which was Bing's very first list of year-end top searches. This year, the Bing sea [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Microsoft: Bing | Search & Society: General | Top News

It's almost unanimous: 94 percent of U.S. teachers say their students equate "research" with using Google or other search engines -- more so than Wikipedia and other online encyclopedias. But teachers are less sure that their students are effective searchers, and they're more skeptical than most adults about the accuracy and trustworthiness of information that's found via search engines. The data comes from a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project in conjunction with the College Board and the National Writing Project. Nearly 2,500 middle and high scho [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Features: Analysis | Google: Web Search | Search & Society: General | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

Trying to keep up with Hurricane Sandy? Below are a variety of resources which may help. Storm Tracking Google Super Storm Sandy Map Google Super Storm Sandy Maps: NYC Close-up ESRI's Hurricane Information Map Weather.com Hurricane Tracker Local TV Live Stream Boston: CBS NYC: NBC Philadelphia: CBS Washington DC: Fox Washington DC: NBC Radio A brief post with details about how to listen live to audio streams of first responders from throughout the affected region Listen to live audio streams from all-news stations in Boston, DC, Philadelphia, and New York C [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Features: Analysis | Search & Society: General | Search Engines: Disasters | Search Headlines | Top News

I don't know what images were showing up for a "binders full of women" search on Google Images before last night's US presidential debate. But today, they're dominated by a meme started from a comment last night by Republican candidate Mitt Romney. Romney was commenting that he sought to increase the number of women in his cabinet as governor of Massachusetts by asking for more women candidates. As a result, he was delivered "binders full of women" to review. While some are now questioning the story, others are taking part in a new meme, making pictures poking fun at the idea of "binder [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: Analysis | Google: Images | Link Building: Link Bombs | Search & Society: General | Top News

There's a kind of Pavlovian response that happens with major national events in the U.S. (and probably elsewhere): internet users taking to the web to comment on and/or learn more about what they're experiencing. As expected, conversation spiked on social networking sites during the Vice Presidential debate last night. Twitter says there were 3.5 million tweets just during the debate itself, and another half-million before and after. (Update: For more on the social aspect of last night's debate, see my Marketing Land article: Red State, Blue State: The Social Network VP Debate Divide Shown [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Features: Analysis | Search & Society: General | Stats: Search Behavior

Vice President Joe Biden and vice-presidential hopeful Paul Ryan are a little more than an hour away from their first and only debate of this election year, and search activity around the debate is heating up -- largely surrounding Ryan, the Republican nominee. We'll begin with this tweet from Yahoo Search, which reports that there's about seven percent more search interest in tonight's debate over the past week than there was in the week prior to last week's Presidential debate. JUST IN: Searches for the VP debate are 7% higher than the 7-day period leading up to the presidential debat [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Search & Society: General | Stats: Search Behavior