One list I like to see at the end of every year is the Google Zeitgeist. The word Zeitgeist (literally "time spirit" in German) describes the culture and feeling of a specific time - in this case the year summed up through the most popular searches on Google. These might not be the topics that were searched for most (I'm thinking porn-related searches would dominate) but those that have grown in popularity over the year.

The Google Zeitgeist forms an excellent picture of what the world was obsessing about in 2007 – which was definitely social networks. Nine out of the "Fastest Rising Global Top 10" were social networks, except of course for iphone which took the number one spot (surprise surprise).

Fastest Rising (global)
1.    iphone
2.    badoo
3.    facebook
4.    dailymotion
5.    webkinz
6.    youtube
7.    ebuddy
8.    second life
9.    hi5
10.  club penguin

They have also broken down popular searches into themed lists like Movies, TV shows, Ringtones, Recipes, Presidential Candidates and even most-asked “who is?” questions.

Google also compile monthly Zeitgeists (sadly not for South Africa yet) and have a great tool called Google Trends which allow you to compare the popularity of Search terms over a period. Definitely worth checking out.