Google's hot searches for 2010: Chatroulette, iPad, Justin Bieber
By Doug Gross, CNN
Sometimes tawdry web-chat site Chatroulette topped Google's list of fast-rising searches for 2010.
(CNN) -- Apparently the naughty bits on Chatroulette didn't deter Web surfers so much this year. And whether people agreed or differed with Steve Jobs about Apple's "magical" iPad, they still wanted to learn more about it.
Internet users quit worrying so much about swine flu this year, though, and the memories of Michael Jackson's death started to fade.
That's all according to the hottest Google searches of 2010.
The search giant on Thursday released a report, "Zeitgeist 2010: How the World Searched," which offers a snapshot of what computer users were most curious about these past eleven-plus months.
The annual report is the result of "the aggregation of billions of search queries people typed in," according to Google, and shows the year's hottest searches, along with those that fell from favor when compared with 2009.
The fastest-rising search term of the year? Chatroulette.
Launched in November 2009, the site lets people launch video chats with randomly selected fellow users. It got lots of publicity, largely due to the fact that a certain brand of internet user quickly adopted it as a tool for exhibitionism -- and more.
The iPad and pop stars Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj and Katy Perry also made the Top 10.
Twitter and Facebook helped round it out, as did ringtone site Myxer and gaming sites Gamester and Friv.
Among the "fastest falling" searches -- those that dropped from prominence from the year before: the swine flu, which broke out in Mexico and a few parts of the United States last year; "New Moon," part of the title in the latest installment of the teen-vampire "Twilight" saga; and Susan Boyle, the British singer turned YouTube sensation whose career blasted off in '09.
Crashing bank WaMu, departing gadget chain Circuit City and Oscar winner "Slumdog Millionaire" were other hot 2009 searches that faded from the public's querying minds in 2010, according to Google.
The Google report breaks down hot searches in a number of other categories, from fastest-rising news stories (Haiti, Chile and "oil spill" all made the list) to fastest-rising people, where Bieber and Perry again appeared.
Of particular note is Google's "Quirky" category, which reveals such search morsels as top costume searches ("The Jersey Shore's" Snooki fist-pumped her way to the top of that list) and fastest-rising dance search (This reporter is personally pleased to announced "Dougie dance" came in at No. 1).
Topping the list of Google's strangest searches of the year: "Can a horse have OCD?"
Credit: CNN (www.cnn.com)
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