TOP NEWS: Top Searches For 2006

Google: Bebo, MySpace, World Cup, MetaCafe, RadioBlog, Wikipedia, Video, Rebelde, Minonova, Wiki

Yahoo: Britney Spears, WWE, Shakira, Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton, American Idol, Beyonce Knowles, Chris Brown, Pamela Anderson, Lindsay Lohan

MSN: Ronaldhino, Shakira, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Harry Potter, Eminem, Pamela Anderson, Hilary Duff, Rebelde, Angelina Jolie

AOL: Weather, Dictionary, Dogs, American Idol, Maps, Cars, Games, Tattoo, Horoscopes, Lyrics

Poor Britney Spears. First the criticism of her parenting skills. Next, the divorce. Then the chastising by her fans for her wild antics with Paris Hilton.

And now, for the first time in 5 years, her dominance over the top search terms for the year has ended. The pop star only appeared in Yahoo and Live Search's top lists. She was nowhere to be found on Google, Ask.com or even AOL! In 2004, she topped every list, with Paris Hilton (who only made 2 engines this year as well) hot on her trail. So what happened? What changed? And what can we learn from it for our marketing efforts in 2007.

For many marketers, this is our favorite time of year. Aside from the holiday shopping blitz and the major campaigns, the end of the year gives us a chance to reflect on last year's trends and to predict trends for the new year. And search terms are a great tool to help in this task; search is the perfect cultural barometer. It not only tells us what people were interested in the past year, but how their interest manifested. It paints a detailed picture of user behavior online, and how it's changed from previous years. It illustrates how the internet itself has evolved over the year-and lets us know what direction to expect for the next year.

This year we have top search data from Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, AOL, Live Search (formerly MSN) and Lycos -See Chart-. Overall, the data shows a new and developing internet; comparatively, the data explains the growth of each engine-and migration of users to and from each.

Take Google. According the most popular search engine, 2006 was the Year of the Brand. Six of their tops ten terms were the names of major web sites: Bebo, MySpace, MetaCafe, RadioBlog, Wikipedia and Mininova. While this data certainly verifies the popularity of the above sites, it illustrates much more. The Google search bar has finally replaced the address bar as the navigation tool of choice for the average internet user. The browser is more likely to type your company name into Google-the default search engine on many new computers-instead of using your full URL. Some users even enter your entire URL into the search bar instead of the address bar.

To many advertisers, this isn't new; witness the rise of "dot-net" TV ads for gambling sites and the controversy over bidding on competitor names in Pay Per Click advertising. Google's Top Gainers for 2005 also included brand names for six out of ten terms. Google Suggest top words for the each letter of the alphabet reveals 16 brands out of 26 letters. To marketers to whom this comes as a surprise, take note: Control your brand. When a potential client or customer is looking for your company, make sure they get to your site instead of a competitor's or-worse-a complaint site. Don't assume that because the users know who you are that they will get to you.

Google's list reveals a couple more interesting notes. The emergence of terms outside of the U.S. mainstream, like World Cup and Mexican soap opera Rebelde, points to the power of non-U.S. searches and the Spanish-speaking internet population. The change in terms over the past two years also reveals a lot. In 2004, Google's top terms were made up entirely of celebrities and basic internet activities, like chat, mp3s and games. In 2005 and 2006, the list started to fill up with brands-with the exception of two internet activities: wiki and video. Neither activity is a surprise considering its popularity this year, but the fact that those two remained (and others like chat and games dropped out) points to a more and more technical crowd. After all, these searchers weren't just searching for Wikipedia, but for other wikis as well.

The lack of basic internet activity terms also shows that more basic internet users are moving away from Google to other engines. And the engine that seems to be picking the most of those users up, possibly due to its smart TV advertising campaign, is Ask.com. Ask.com's top search list is dominated by basic internet activities and needs, including dictionary, games, cars, food, song lyrics, poems, baby names and music. AOL search, which is powered by Google, also had a top search list comprised of basic internet activities: weather, dictionary, dogs, maps, cars, games, tattoo, horoscope, lyrics. This was a big departure for AOL, which usually has a list filled with celebrity and entertainment-related searches.

Entertainment searchers, it seems, migrated to Yahoo, where they have always held the top terms, and to Live Search (formerly MSN), which hasn't before released U.S. yearly search data. Both were dominated, as usual, by attractive female singers: Britney Spears, Shakira, Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton (she did become a singer this year), Hilary Duff and Beyonce Knowles. Actresses Pamela Anderson, Angelina Jolie and Lindsay Lohan also made the two lists-though none, I surmise, for their actual acting ability (no offense intended). Male singers Eminem and Chris Brown edged their way in as well.

There were some differences between Live Search and Yahoo! The engine formerly known as MSN skewed a bit Spanish this year, with searches for Shakira, soccer star Ronaldhino and Rebelde topping the list. American Idol popped on Yahoo vs. Harry Potter on Live Search, ostensibly identifying MSN Live users as somewhat more literary. Notably missing from all search engines were any U.S. sports, which usually feature in Yahoo's list. Lycos, a minor search engine still holding on, showed the broadest (and least interesting) list of top terms, including brands, basic internet activities and entertainment. This nice mix means no real grouping of users at the engine, just some stragglers still using the dying engine.

So what did happen to Britney Spears? Did she become less popular? After all, she did top Yahoo's list-and she was one of the top "People Searches" in all the other engines. No: people still searched for her; what changed was how and where they did. 2006 became the year that fully defined the engines. New users splintered off from Google to Ask.com and the new, free AOL. Live Search, the default home page in Internet Explorer, picked up the non-technical, entertainment oriented crowd from AOL. Yahoo stayed the same, catering to entertainment, celebrity and music junkies, although they seem to be losing ground in sports and news, possibly to dedicated portals. Live Search and Google showed the important of globalization and the Spanish-speaking internet public.

Google has transitioned from search engine to something else: a start page for the internet, a new form of navigation. URLs came about so that users wouldn't have to remember strings of numbers. In the Google age, all you have to remember is the brand and Google does the rest.

So Britney is fine-and popular-online. Searchers wanting celebrity news are finding her on Yahoo and Live Search. Searchers learning how to buy her mp3s for themselves (or, more likely, their children) are finding her through Ask.com and AOL. Google users already know what they want; they are listening to 163 of her songs on RadioBlog.

Until December 2007, Happy New Years and Happy Searching.