It should come as no surprise to regular web users that Canadian pop star Justin Bieber was one of Google's “fastest rising” searches of the year.
And not just in Canada but around the world, including in the United States, Chile, France, Mexico and the U.K.
Google released its annual Zeitgeist on Thursday, revealing the fastest-growing new search terms of the year, and the overall most popular queries.
Sixteen-year-old Bieber, a native of Stratford, Ont., used homemade YouTube videos to get the attention of music moguls and has continued to work social media — he has almost 6.3 million followers on Twitter — as he's rocketed to fame and online ubiquity.
It's pretty hard to escape Bieber online these days.
“I think for some people (it's) a curiosity,” Google Canada's Wendy Rozeluk said of the Bieber searches.
“He's put Canada and Stratford on the map.”
Globally, Bieber ranked third on the list of fastest-rising searches and was first in categories for fastest rising in entertainment and fastest-rising people.
He actually ranked lower in Canada in those categories, coming in seventh, third and third, respectively.
“Sometimes we tend to not shine as bright a light on our homegrown talent in the same way that other people do, but it's great to see him really succeed globally,” Rozeluk said.
The other top fast-rising search terms overall in Canada included the Vancouver Olympics, the World Cup, Lotto Max, “Glee,” the free classified site Kijiji, Hotmail and Google Translate.
The top two were the iPad and Chatroulette, a video chat website that randomly connects users around the world.
The top searches overall in Canada were mostly used as shortcuts to web pages, including queries for Facebook, YouTube, Google, Hotmail, Kijiji and Yahoo. The other searches in the top 10 were games, weather, map and news.
Google also tabulated a funny list of the strangest searches of the year, based on its American users.
They are:
- Can a horse have OCD?
- Am I bipolar or overachiever?
- Why are Americans afraid of dragons?
- Ninjas are better than pirates
- Why is a raven like a writing desk?
- Why does Brian Wilson dye his beard?
- Should I marry him?
- I wish I could speak whale
- Why couldn't you stand on the sun's surface?
- Why does my baby grunt?
Click the link for a full list of Google Canada's top searches
