Google announced its annual Zeitgeist report, a look at 2010 through the most popular searches on the Web.
The results for Ireland show a landscape dominated by media consumption, e-mail, video chat and social networking.
Top of the list of global searches was the controversial Chatroulette, a website that randomly connects users through one-on-one videochat with complete strangers around the world. The website has seen a phenomenal rise in popularity, fuelled in part by all manner of horror stories about users encountering pornographic content.
‘Bieber fever’ proved consistently popular with Irish users, the baby-faced pop star showing up in the fastest rising lists for music, entertainment and people. Other winners in this category include the Eurovision song contest and rappers Eminem and Cee lo Green. The last season of Big Brother also left an impression with audiences. While Glee appeared as the only consistently popular mainstream scripted TV show, catch-up services for RTE, TV3 and ITV also scored highly.
In the world of sports, embattled Manchester United star Wayne Rooney rated highly; although it’s unclear whether this was due to his highly contentious wage increase or his extra-marital activities.
Surprisingly none of the major technology players made the cut, despite the release of the iPad, iPhone 4 and Windows Phone 7. The gaming industry was also conspicuous by its absence – an especially interesting result given the massive success of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Halow: Reach.
Full list of Zeitgeist results:
Ireland
Fastest rising
1. Chatroulette
2. Gmail
3. Hotmail
4. Glee
5. fb
6. TV3 player
7. World Cup 2010
8. Gerry Ryan
9. RTE Player
10. Ryanair.ie
Fastest Rising Music
1. Cee Lo Green
2. Eminem Recovery
3. Eurovision 2010
4. Professor Green
5. V Festival 2010
6. Glee
7. Niamh Kavanagh
8. Oxegen 2010
9. Fireflies lyrics
10. Justin Bieber
Fastest rising people
1. Gerry Ryan
2. Justin Bieber
3. Wayne Rooney
4. Jedward
5. Katy Perry
6. Michael Buble
7. Kim Kardasian
8. Cheryl cole
9. Paolo Nutini
10. Miley Cyrus
Fastest rising entertainment
1. Chatroulette
2. Big Brother 2010
3. Glee
4. Justin Bieber
5. TV3 Player
6. 4od
7. RTE player
8. Odeon
9. Iron Man 2
10. ITV player
Fastest rising sport
1. Fifa 11
2. Galway Races 2010
3. Ryder Cup update
4. Grand National 2010
5. Vancouver 2010
6. Wimbledon 2010
7. Aviva Stadium
8. Winter Olympics
9. World Cup 2010
10. Blackpool FC
Most popular searches overall
1. Facebook
2. Youtube
3. Hotmail
4. Bebo
5. Games
6. Google
7. BBC
8. Gmail
9. Mail
10. News
Global fastest rising for 2010
1. Chatroulette
2. iPad
3. Justin Bieber
4. Nicki Minaj
5. Friv
6. Myxer
7. Katy Perry
8. Twitter
9. Gamezer
10. Facebook
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