Spirits Having Flown

No, this isn't a post about the Bee Gees' fifteenth album, released in 1979, though it is rather good.

I was reading a summary in Netimperative of Google's annual 'Zeitgeist' - or Spirit of the Times - report which looks at search terms used on google.co.uk over the previous 12 months.

It gives us lists in various categories but, with new topics 'trending' by the online second, I'm not sure these are really long-term trends as such, rather long snapshots: a wide-lense camera with the aperture open for a bit longer!

They are of course majorly important to the internet economy which is now judged by the UK Office for National Statistics to be the fourth largest economic sector in the UK - behind Real Estate, Manufacturing and Retail but ahead of Health, Construction and Education.

Internet marketers and SEO specialists - and there are many excellent IPA agencies specialising in the digital sector - will see no surprises in Facebook, the BBC and YouTube dominating the websites being searched for (sought after?) nor webcam chat site Chatroulette or friends' question and answer site Formspring dominating search requests this year.

Interesting that they have a 'top divorce' category. Sorry Cheryl! Perhaps as one of my favourite reads - The Week - now terms it (Politically Correct clearly wasn't PC anymore) it is entirely in keeping with the 'Spirit of the Age' that people search so often for this information.

Comfortingly, argos is still the most popular retail term being searched for, though that little bird may well have flown away too by the time you read this.