The Year’s Most Popular Web-Searches Explain 2010 To Us All

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As we close the door on 2010, you might find yourself wondering, “What was that year all about?” Well, finally you can find out, thanks to Hitwise listing the most searched-for terms on the internet over the last fifty-two weeks. For example, Facebook owned the year. Not only was “facebook” the most searched-for term of the year (with “facebook login,” “facebook.com” and “www.facebook.com” also in the top 10 – and, please, internet, I think those last two show that you need to learn the difference between the address bar and a search engine – and Facebook-related searches accounting for 3.48% of the top 50 web searches in 2010), but Facebook also took over the role of the most visited website of the year with Google dethroned… at least until you factor in Google-owned YouTube, which was the fifth most visited site of the year; adding those two together gives Google a totaly of 9.85% of all US web visits against Facebook’s 8.12%.

The most searched-for movies of the year? Surprisingly, Star Wars leads the way, with Paranormal Activity 2, Avatar, Transformers 3 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows trailing behind. Television suffered more, though, with Dancing With The Stars, American Idol and The Young And The Restless taking top spots for specific programs, although “Hulu” was the top television-related search for the year. Lady Gaga topped the list of most searched-for musical artist, narrowly ahead of Justin Beiber (of course), but in terms of celebrities, it was all about Kim Kardashian, Oprah, Rush Limbaugh, Miley Cyrus and Glenn Beck.

So, there you have it: 2010 was the year when Kim Kardashian and Oprah Facebooked each other about watching Star Wars on YouTube after catching up with Dancing With The Stars on Hulu. With that as its legacy, there’s no way that 2011 could fail to be an improvement.

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