Tech Shout!

The “Year-End Google Zeitgeist” top ten lists is here.

Internet users searching on Google have searched the maximum for the renowned social networking sites Bebo.com and MySpace. The other two terms that showed maximum search results on the search engine were Paris Hilton and Hezbollah, Borat Sagiyev, a fictional Kazakhstani journalist created by British comic Sacha Cohen and FIFA World Cup were the other most-searched items.

As per the list of popular search terms and the items that have shown the fastest growth, the top 10 searches were found to be dominated by web 2.0 developments, such as video site Metacafe, music streaming service Radioblog and online encyclopedia Wikipedia. The list also stated that Internet surfers were more curious about Nicole Kidman’s wedding than that of her former husband Tom Cruise’s wedding with Katie Holmes, while singer Paul McCartney’s divorce attracted more attention than Britney Spears’.

The Spanish word “rebelde” placed eighth in the general search rankings, with query results including a popular band, a video-sharing website, and a television series.

The top news searches of 2006 were dominated by celebrity, illness, tragedy and the bizarre

Hunts for cancer news ranked third, followed by podcasting, Hurricane Katrina, and bankruptcy in that order.

Swiss tennis star Martina Hingis was seventh on the news search list, ahead of autism, the US National Football League draft, and the television show Celebrity Big Brother.

In the “How to” section, web users wanted to learn how to refinance, set up a Wiki page, drift, tattoo, podcast, scream and even levitate!

Internet users also wanted to learn about author Truman Capote, conceivably after a movie bearing his name was nominated for an Academy Award for best picture.

The word ‘video’ was the seventh most searched of 2006, indicating the growth in services such as YouTube and MetaCafe, and offerings from Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Surprisingly, two of the most searched-for definitions on Google were “promiscuous” and “drift,” the term used to describe a dangerous and outlawed car stunt.

Check out the entire “Year-End Google Zeitgeist” list here.