The 2008 Zeitgeist

Perhaps because the new iPhone was/is only available on AT&T's crappy network people were searching for it more this year?

My own personal experience is that even though I think I'm net savvy it wasn't until this year that I knew I could find my favorite TV shows on youtube. I still thought it was for home movies and amateur skits and the like.

Youtube as a replacement for Tivo or DVR explains why it has boomed in popularity. Plus there are some really good, commercial quality videos there as well.

Hi-def video plus hi-speed internet means people want content, a lot of it.

Surf the Channel is an aggregation site for links to copyrighted material hosted on foreign (and thus hard to prosecute) sites.

Most every episode of The Simpsons, for example, is hosted on an East Asian Youtube-like site. Surf the Channel provides direct links in English to the relevant content without having to navigate the non-English sites yourself.

Seriously, is there a reason for this?

i do so much surfing via the Google search box that i sometimes just type a partial URL in there and let the search bring up the real link. so, i'll type "youtube" into the search box and then click the link when it comes up.

"Seriously, is there a reason for this?"

i do so much surfing via the Google search box that i sometimes just type a partial URL in there and let the search bring up the real link. so, i'll type "youtube" into the search box and then click the link when it comes up.

The new Chrome browser encourages this by making the address bar and search bar the same thing.

I suspect many people are like cleek and type in partial urls and then just go for the two click sol'n rather than type over in a more obscure field to save a click.

But there's lots to find by googling youtube, including news articles about youtube, wiki results, financials, etc.

And some sites are harder to type than youtube. And are they .org or .com or .moby? Beats me, but teh g00gle knows.

Also, you would be surprised how many people use the search window to go to a page's homepage. One of my friends does this and it's maddening to watch him access the web.

Posted by: Mo on 12/10/08 at 2:52 PM Respond

Not to project this level of insight onto your friend, but google optimization engine does a good job of keeping the most relevant site on top, so when you have a situation where there are multiple similar page names (one I can think of that unfortunately nobody will be able to relate to is VW parts supplier Momentum Motorsports). The websites momentummotorsports.com, momentummotorparts.com, momentum.com, and momentummotorsport.com all go to different businesses, only one of which sells the axles I need. So, typing "momentum VW" into my search bar brings up the correct page at the top of the list. I'm sure there are much better examples, but I find this benefit makes it worthwhile to use the search bar for almost all of my non-regular web surfing (because firefox does a great job of keeping my most visited sites one click away).

Well now we know why Inkblot's campaign for president never got off the ground. He wasn't googled enough!

Oh geeze, and the Googlephile above is me.

And as long as I'm on the topic of user interfaces - Kevin, I've hinted my I'll just blurt it out - this comment box sucks.

Maybe that stuff is all contracted out now that you work for the "Man" but your customer service was a LOT better back when you Calpundit yourself. In this day and age customer service counts for a LOT, and it is a drag to see you failing at it.

[We know it sucks, honest we do. But please hang in there - We are getting a new platform in the coming weeks and hopefully these problems will be remedied.]

AT&T got all the hits because new iPhone users were searching for AT&T Tech Support to complain about crappy 3G network speed!

I heard that Inkblot googles his handle. That would disqualify anyone.

"it is the tenth fastest growing Google search in the United States. We are all doomed."

No kidding. The top ten rising Google searches, and not one of them connected to looking at naughty pictures? They must have censored the searches.

Also, I'd have thought search terms related to the economy, like "jobs", or "where'd my savings go" would have featured.

I just looked at Surfing the Channel. It has links to sites involving television shows. Now you don't have to look.

optical,

The problem is not that my eyes are bad, it is that my mouth is too big. I need the room for typing!

thersites,

Back in my day we only had four channels but by golly we had 80 columns to type in!

Dooooomed.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10119509-93.html

Don't worry thersites, Tripp has opposable teeth!

Kevin,
You buried the lede.
The really interesting bit of news on the Google site was the list of fastest rising Google translate terms. Four of the top 5 terms were "you", "thank you", "please" and "love".

Now, that's change we can believe in.

Could the reason Youtube & STC are growing so rapidly be that so many people are now getting a high speed link...

When I bought my most recent computer at Best Buy last March, I told the 'experts' that I wanted a computer particularly adept at displaying online TV shows and videos. They acted as if it was the most bizarre request that they had ever heard. By dropping cable and picking up high speed, I actually saved $3/mo.