Social Networks Lead Ask, Google, Yahoo Search Terms For 2007 - InformationWeek

It's December and in the news concern that agency 1 thing: lists.

During the vacation season, companies, sensing easy publicity, release listings of all kinds and journalists dutifully, or perhaps lazily, reissue them.

This week, the hunt companies, except for Microsoft, are putting out their listings of top hunt footing for 2007.

The listings are, as Marissa Mayer, Google's VP of hunt merchandises and user experience, readily admitted in a for the fourth estate on Tuesday, edited to take adult-oriented questions and deadening queries, like "weather," that turn out perpetually popular.

But as Marie Goeppert Mayer also pointed out, Google listings reflect rushes in hunt term volume and adult-oriented queries generally wouldn't be among Google's top-surging search footing even if they weren't edited because they're relatively constant.

Google's listing of fastest-rising search footing in the United States this twelvemonth is as follows: 1) iPhone; 2) Webkinz; 3) TMZ; 4) Transformers; 5) YouTube; 6) Baseball Club Penguin; 7) MySpace; 8) Heroes; 9) Facebook; 10) Anna Nicole Smith.

"There's a immense rush in involvement in societal networking," observed Mayer, who noted that three of the top 10 rise footing were for popular societal webs (four, if you number YouTube). Sociable networking land sites also showed up in listings of top hunt footing published by other hunt companies.

Yahoo on Monday presented its listing of top hunt tendencies in 2007. It's not really comparable to Google's listing because Yokel shows the top hunts in respective specific classes rather than commanding them by rising or falling volume. Yahoo's are: 1) YouTube; 2) Wikipedia; 3) Facebook; 4) iTunes; 5) iPod; 6) iPhone; 7) Nintendo Wii; 8) Xbox; 9) Sony PlayStation 3; and 10) Guitar Hero.

Yahoo posted of top footing for specific classes of content, including top 10 news stories, top 10 environmental searches, top 10 troubled stars, and the like.

Ask.com on Tuesday offered of the most popular hunt footing in 2007, not to be confused with the fastest hunt volume growth. Ask's name includes: 1) MySpace; 2) Dictionary; 3) Google; 4) Themes; 5) Area Codes; 6) Cars; 7) Weather; 8) Games; 9) Song Lyrics; 10) Movies.

While lacking in the freshness value of Google's list, Ask rates particular reference for publication a listing that includes Google (the competition) and for presenting footing deemed too deadening for inclusion by Google. Yahoo's top 10 listing includes YouTube but not Google.