Zeitgeist Schmeitgeist

HALLIE: Sometimes, just to amuse myself while I'm waiting at the supermarket, I look at People and count the famous people I'd never recognize if they were standing behind me in the checkout line. The ratio of unknowns to knowns gets higher each year.

So it was with interest that I wiled away some time on this long lazy New Year's weekend exploring Google Zeitgeist 2010 where a year of Google searches by users everywhere are analyzed.

Fastest rising search terms in the US in 2010? Like the cover of People Magazine, I have no idea what almost half of them are. I'm not saying which, just wondering if this is definitive evidence that for all of 2010 I was only half here.

Have a look. Does this list make you feel like you slept through the year, too?

Fastest rising search terms in the US in 2010:

1. ipad
2. chatroulette
3. iphone 4
4. world cup
5. justin bieber
6. myxer
7. facebook
8. grooveshark
9. glee
10. mocospace

Justin who? Just kidding...

Not surprisingly, I bat much higher with the fastest falling search terms of 2010:

1. swine flu
2. wamu
3. cash for clunkers
4. new moon
5. susan boyle
6. circuit city
7. myspace
8. michael jackson
9. stephanie meyer
10. northwest airlines

In this list, there's just one I don't know, and Google didn't help me figure out what the heck it is.
Poor Myspace. And Susan Boyle. And Stephanie Meyer? Really??

Any predictions (or wishes?) for what the 2011 list will look like? Fastest falling? Fastest rising? It's time to weigh in... we can look back in a year and see how we did.