It’s the end of the year and that means it’s time for Google to announce who searched for what, where, when, and how. It’s all done in a little tradition called the Google Zeitgeist. Rather than dump all this data into an Excel sheet and let you sort through it, the search giant added some polish to the results and made an interactive map as well as a few easy-to-use lists. A few of the lists are below but be sure to check out the Google Zeitgeist 2010 to get the full experience.
You may be stunned by the lack of engagement (relative to the rest of the world) by the U.S. in the World Cup. Or maybe you won’t be surprised at all. Either way, there’s a boatload of learning opportunities here for any classroom!
Fastest Rising Search Terms
Fastest Falling Search Terms
- swine flu
- wamu
- new moon
- mininova
- susan boyle
- slumdog millionaire
- circuit city
- myspace layouts
- michael jackson
- national city bank
Fastest Rising Health Queries
- hcg diet
- dr oz
- aspergers
- mcdonalds nutrition
- vitamin d deficiency
- appendicitis symptoms
- cholera
- nfp
- vacina h1n1
- whooping cough
Zeitgeist In The Classroom
There’s a whole mess of information that’s just aching to be used in the classroom. With interactive maps, students from around the world can take advantage of a free and easy-to-use interface to let them see and understand what people in other countries are searching for. You can even select any other country to see what that country searched for. It’s quite enjoyable. Here are a few screenshots of some random charts. As you can see, it’s more than just a bulleted list!
How do you think you will use the Google Zeitgeist in the classroom? In social studies? Science? Finance? It seems to be a teaching tool that spans across numerous disciplines. Let me (and others) know how you use it down in the comments and thanks!
