IRELAND WAS preoccupied with the threat of swine flu and the death of celebrities in 2009, if internet search queries by Irish users on Google News are anything to go by.
The search engine’s year-end ‘Zeitgeist” – a listing of the most popular keywords that users have searched for on the web using Google – revealed the fastest rising search term on Google News in 2009 was swine flu.
However, concern over the spread of the virus only narrowly eclipsed interest in the high-profile deaths of Boyzone singer Stephen Gately, TV celebrity Jade Goody and pop superstar Michael Jackson.
The rankings, which are based on the aggregation of billions of search queries carried out on Google, showed social networking site Facebook remained the fastest growing search item on Google.ie, ahead of Yahoo’s e-mail service.
Perhaps the greatest sign of the times was the huge surge in queries for Fás-run programmes for jobseekers, which entered the top 10 fastest growing search items for the first time, reflecting the growth in unemployment.
The Irish Times website was the highest-ranked Irish news website, ranking seventh behind internet video-sharing site YouTube in the fastest growing Google.ie searches category.
The rest of the global list was dominated by social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Tuenti.
The largest rise in searched-for images by Irish users was for pop diva Lady Gaga.
