Top in the list was online entertainment where YouTube came first followed by football team Arsenal, Social media site Facebook then Email services searches, writes PATRICK GITHINJI
With only a few days left to usher in the New Year, search engine giant Google has released its annual list of most searched terms based on each country.
The research, conducted by Google Zeitgeist, is an annual exercise, which reveals the year’s top searches around the world.
In Kenya, the study reported that online entertainment topped the list.
"YouTube was at the top, while football team Arsenal followed," the Zeitgeist study noted.
Social media site Facebook was fourth, while Email services searches Yahoo and Gmail settled at fifth and sixth position.
Both The Standard newspaper and KTN featured in the top 10 list of top Google News and local top searched news respectively.
Fastest rising
Interestingly, the study revealed that search queries for KRA pin application came in seventh in the fastest rising searches, outshining email services such as Yahoo mail and hotmail.
Kenya’s most searched terms were different from it perennial tech competitor nation South Africa.
Mobile application, ‘WhatsApp’, Rugby World Cup and royal wedding topped the list of fastest rising Google searches in South Africa this year.
"WhatsApp Messenger — a cross-platform mobile messaging app for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Nokia — topped the list of fastest rising searches in South Africa for this year.
The Rugby World Cup follows at number two with the royal wedding claiming third position.
The late Amy Winehouse, in fifth place, gets beaten by Facebook, ranked fourth on the list.
Songbird, Adele, takes spot number six, followed by deceased Libyan dictator, Gaddafi, and the iPhone 5 appears in seventh and eighth positions respectively," the study revealed.
Globally, the most searched terms by all countries were social network sites such as Facebook, news especially the death of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, Southern Sudan Independence, Japan Earthquake, Brazil floods, Middle East Revolution and Gaddafi death.
Other global searches included entertainment, and the most searched terms were Rihanna, Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne.
Sports searches
However, on Kenya’s sports-related search queries National Basketball Association (NBA) led the pack, with queries on the English Premier League, the most popular football league in Kenya coming in second place.
Queries on international entertainers dominated the fastest rising people, with Big Meech topping the list.
Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple, held his own and threw Nicki Minaj and Rihanna out of the way to settle at second and third position respectively.
Another interesting personality in the top ten fastest rising people was televangelist Joel Osteen, who was placed sixth before hip hop artiste Lil Wayne. Assistant Minister Lewis Nguyai was featured in the list of fastest rising personality and was placed ten in the list.
He outshined established politicians like Prime Minister Raila Odinga, President Kibaki, Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Narc Kenya Leader Martha Karua and Eldoret North legislator William Ruto, who during the year received huge media coverage.
Nguyai’s popularity rose during the confirmation of charges hearing for the six International Criminal Court (ICC) suspects believed to be behind the post-election violence.
The Kikuyu legislator was bearing witness against the charges brought against Uhuru Kenyatta.
So what entertainment news do Kenyans search for most?
Soap Operas remained a popular pass time for Kenyans, with Soy Tu Duena and Teresa Telenovela featuring highly in the top entertainment searches.
The survey also examined health education in Kenya and diseases that claimed lives of prominent Kenyan figures in August, September and part of October topped.
"HIV topped, ovarian cancer and prostate cancer came second and third respectively while causes of cancer, cervical cancer and heart disease were placed fourth, fifth and sixth respectively," the study noted.
Cancer queries
Little known disease such as prostate and ovarian cancer queries were encouraged by Medical Services Minister Prof Anyang’ Nyongo’ and the death of Prof Wangari Maathai. "Prof Maathai’s death as result of ovarian cancer raised awareness, which precipitated the searches," the study explained.
The chronic disease edged out malaria and other outbreak diseases from the search list.
In a statement, the search engine giant argued that these top trends give insights into the interests and habits of Kenyans, information that can be useful to marketers, communicators and any other professionals who produce goods and services for the end-user, the consumer.
However, Ghana’s 2011 fastest rising searches were social media with Facebook and Twitter both featuring on the fastest rising list.
The west African nation 10 fastest rising searches demonstrated that Ghanaians’ continued love for the world’s most popular sport — football — with many people searching for information on the English premier league (EPL), Real Madrid and Barcelona teams as well as for the great player Lionel Messi. Other popular search terms ‘HTC’ and ‘Trader’ underlined the future of the web is mobile.
Google Trader is a virtual marketplace (web and mobile phone) that allows people to buy and sell anything from electronics to crops by text message and HTC is one of the largest Android and Windows smartphone manufacturers in the world, whose phones became widely available in Ghana this year.
