The Year that Was 2006, according to Google

What did we ever do without Google for search engine entertainment and taking our cultural pulse?

I was checking out Google's annual Zeitgeist for the past year and I couldn't help but opine on the results. Google Zeitgeist aggregates user searches over the past year in various categories displaying our collective consciousness and online activity. With roughly 70% of the U.S. now on the Internet and with Google now controlling over 50% of the search engine market I think it is safe to safe that Google Zeitgeist captures the "pulse" of our society.

Read and interpret it as you would like but this is what I learned:

- According to the top search results, social networking is here to stay and we are only going to spend more countless hours on Myspace, Bebo, and Wikipedia.

- A review of Google News searches reveals that we wanted the latest information on Paris Hilton and Orlando Bloom over both cancer and Hurricane Katrina. Last year Janet Jackson beat out Hurricane Katrina.

- The item we wanted defined most was "promiscuous" and we really wanted to learn how to "refinance."

- The Duke Lacrosse scandal received three of the top five spots for "US Scandals"

- Suri beat out Shiloh in searches and Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise came in #1 and #2 for wedding searches

- The most coveted ticket this year was for the Cheetah Girls

- The World Cup killed the Olympics this year and Bob Baker's retirement beat out Tiki Barber, Samy Sosa and Bill Gates.

Interesting year, 2007 predictions? Check out the 2005 results here.