Google year-end Zeitgeist for 2008 revealed

What has the world been searching for this year?

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10 December 2008 9:47 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

As is now becoming an online tradition, Google has released its year-end Zeitgeist lists for 2008.

The search engine says the report determines the top trends, fads and memes of the past year, as well as highlighting the big events and memorable moments.

The results come from the aggregation of the billions of search queries that people type into the Google search box. The "fastest rising" global list puts Sarah Palin in the top slot, with Facebook third:

1. sarah palin
2. beijing 2008
3. facebook login
4. tuenti
5. heath ledger
6. obama
7. nasza klasa
8. wer kennt wen
9. euro 2008
10. jonas brothers

As far as the UK goes, many of the top searches in Britain this year have been for websites. Here are the overall most popular searches:

1. facebook
2. bbc
3. youtube
4. ebay
5. games
6. news
7. hotmail
8. bebo
9. yahoo
10. jobs

The UK's fastest rising search terms puts the BBC's popular iPlayer service on top, with the iPhone, Facebook and YouTube following.

1. iplayer
2. facebook
3. iphone
4. youtube
5. yahoo mail
6. large hadron collider
7. obama
8. friv
9. cam4
10. jogos