WebDesign Bureau of Mauritius

Remember that the word “sex” claimed to be the most searched word on the web for a long time? Well, times have changed and Web 2.0 have tanned its hide. I’ve been hanging around on Google Trends these days and just thought about how things could have changed around the world with the advent of the Internet, the use of search engines and the popularity of some major new age applications. One thing we’ll notice in this analysis is that the search for the word “sex” is pretty constant with minor fluctuations.

Obama stronger than sex itself.

Barack Obama’s election is a pure example of buzz. On the night prior to his election, search engine searches on his name have seen a major boost overwhelming “sex” by a good 100%! Ok, it was the American election etc. but the stats are based on world searches. However, after that day, the buzz just died down. Here’s the Google Trends chart based on “obama” and “sex” searches.

MySpace, the first contender.

The birth of MySpace was a huge leap for social networking and Web 2.0 (in its real social, Internet user buzz definition). People around the world started opening MySpace pages to keep in touch and build new relationship networks. Even Guns and Roses put their 15 years brewed 20 million dollars “Chinese Democracy” online to 76 millions of tracks listened since Friday last (21/11/2008). MySpace had such an impact that it nearly became the number one searched keyword while becoming, for some time, the number one social media. Here’s the Google Trends chart for “MySpace” and “sex” searches. Wow, that was a close call!

Ladies and Gents, Mr B.I.G, the Masta!: Facebook

Call it the buzzword killer, the ultimate social media tool, the world class Web 2.0 application. Facebook turns out to have a constant increase in users and above that a steady use. This gives you the following chart, where Facebook started out by the end of the first term of 2004 and just kept on becoming more popular. Along with that you can also see that, according to Google, references to the application were not that much during that time.

There you have it then, Facebook is now the most searched keyword on the net and “sex” has been thrown back to the second place. What will the future be then ? Will it be “oil prices”, “water”, “crisis”, “work”, “job” or another webapp like Twitter? Here’s what we’ve got for Twitter for now :