2008 Google Zeitgeist Report for South Africa

2008 has been a year of change in South Africa, and people have been using Google to keep abreast of the most interesting news and trends as well as their favourite websites. Some of the most popular searches included Load Shedding and of course the FIFA 2010 World Cup. This year’s Zeitgeist also reflects important South African concerns like Xenophobia, along with rising interest in new developments like the Gautrain. South Africans were keen to stay up to date on politics, with high volumes of searches around Thabo Mbeki’s resignation, and around international events like the elections in the USA and Zimbabwe. Take a look below to get sense of the Zeitgeist, or spirit of the times, in South Africa for 2008.

“Fastest rising” means we looked at the most popular searches conducted for 11 months of 2008 (we compile this list by early December) and then ranked them based on how much their popularity increased compared to 2007. “Most popular” searches are ranked in order of the queries with the largest volume of searches for 2008.

Fastest Rising

   1. gumtree
   2. facebook
   3. lotto
   4. eskom
   5. youtube
   6. beeld
   7. news 24
   8. yahoo mail
   9. chuck norris
  10. beijing olympics

Most Popular
   1. facebook
   2. cape times
   3. games
   4. map
   5. yahoo
   6. news
   7. jobs
   8. google
   9. gmail
  10. pictures

Top Politicians
   1. jacob zuma
   2. thabo mbeki
   3. trevor manuel
   4. julius malema
   5. kgalema motlanthe
   6. helen zille
   7. fikile mbalula
   8. terror lekota
   9. mbhazima shilowa
  10. mongosuthu buthelezi

Top Newsworthy
   1. load shedding
   2. fifa 2010 world cup
   3. beijing olympics
   4. barack obama
   5. global warming
   6. euro 2008
   7. xenophobia
   8. adt (home and office security service)
   9. zimbabwe election
  10. cope (congress of the people
   political party)

Top Sports Teams
   1. the sharks
   2. kaizer chiefs
   3. the lions
   4. mamelodi sundowns
   5. bafana bafana
   6. orlando pirates
   7. stormers
   8. the springboks
   9. cheetahs
  10. proteas

Top Local Celebs
   1. dj sbu
   2. dj fresh
   3. dj cleo
   4. kelly khumalo
   5. danny k
   6. ryk neethling
   7. khanyi mbau
   8. connie ferguson
   9. gareth cliff
  10. loyiso bala

Via Google Zeitgeist