What do our search terms say about us?

The annual list of what the world searches for online has been released.  No real surprises — Britney Spears and Barack Obama top the lists, which are littered with pop culture (WWE, Miley Cyrus, Lindsay Lohan) and political (Sarah Palin) references.  The Olympics, the iPhone, and functional terms like credit score make a good showing as well.  The lists are here.

More interesting than the list of results is how the search companies tabulate the rankings, and what it says about us.

For example, “Yahoo doesn’t reveal exactly how it calculates its rankings other than to say it analyzes the number of queries for a specific term and its increase in popularity. Generic search terms such as “car” are ignored, as are most company names.”

Why would you remove generic search terms?  Searching is searching, there is no need to massage the results.  If online users are looking up brands, that says a lot about how we choose which products to buy and use.  And there is no doubt we are using Yahoo! and other search engines to find basic information, like a phone number to our local pizza place.  We may not all be searching for the same simple piece of information, but by the same measure I believe (or maybe hope is a better term for it) that most of the population isn’t searching for information about Britney Speaks either.

The Ask.com, whose list is apparently unedited, lists the term “Dictionary” on the top of its list, and shows Google, Facebook as being of great interest to users as well.  Their results suggest, among other things, that finding the sites we use most is one of the most important things a search engine helps us to do.  They may not have the same PR value, but for people who want to understand what people are using the internet to do, it says a lot.

The fact that Yahoo! feels its necessary to adjust its rankings for PR purposes makes me wonder what they do with the actual results.  Do they manipulate the results to align with advertising listings?  Do the search engines promote certain information that supports their political agenda, or their personal interests?  Do the results that search engines provide reflect the full scope of information that is out there period?  Maybe its just a sad cry for attention.

Whatever the reason, the lists make for good cocktail party conversation, but little else as far as I am concerned.

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Brian Reich

Brian is Managing Director of little m media which provides strategic guidance and support to organizations around the use of the internet and technology to facilitate communications, engagement, education, and mobilization. He is well known for his expertise in new media, web 2.0, social networks, mobile, community, ecommerce, brand marketing, cause branding, and more. Reich, the author of Media Rules!: Mastering Today’s Technology to Connect With and Keep Your Audience (Wiley 2007). He blogs at Thinking About Media and contributes as a Fast Company Expert. Previously, Reich was a principal of EchoDitto, one of the most successful online communications agencies in the nation, Director of New Media for Cone Inc, a brand strategy and communications agency in Boston and a Senior Strategic Consultant and Director of Boston Operations for Mindshare Interactive Campaigns, an interactive public affairs agency. From 2000 – 2004, Brian ran how own strategic communications firm, Mouse Communications. Reich has worked in and around politics, including helping to direct dozens of campaigns across the country. He spent two years as Vice President Gore’s Briefing Director in the White House, handling both official activities and activities during his 2000 presidential campaign. Brian serves on the board of Investigate West, independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to the art and craft of investigative and narrative journalism. Brian served as an adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University in Washington, DC and is currently teaching a course on consumer behavior and marketing at Columbia University in New York. Brian attended the University of Michigan and is a graduate of Columbia University. He and his wife, Karen Dahl, live in New York City with their son, Henry.

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