# Possible to see a ranking of the most searched terms on Google? Most popular sites? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 31, 2006, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-see-a-ranking-of-the-most-searched-terms-on-google-most-popular-sites/358862 "2006-05-31T12:43:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gitfiddle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/898d66/32.png) [@gitfiddle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gitfiddle)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2006, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-see-a-ranking-of-the-most-searched-terms-on-google-most-popular-sites/358862/1 "2006-05-31T12:43:28Z")
I’m just curious if google releases lists of most searched terms. Also, what are the most popular sites on the internet? ---
**Author:** ![drewbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drewbert/32/15890_2.png) [@drewbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewbert)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2006, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-see-a-ranking-of-the-most-searched-terms-on-google-most-popular-sites/358862/2 "2006-05-31T13:04:45Z")
> [@gitfiddle](#): > > I’m just curious if google releases lists of most searched terms. Also, what are the most popular sites on the internet? [This page](http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html) lists popular search terms on Google. ---
**Author:** ![gitfiddle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/898d66/32.png) [@gitfiddle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gitfiddle)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2006, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-see-a-ranking-of-the-most-searched-terms-on-google-most-popular-sites/358862/3 "2006-05-31T13:11:05Z")
Zeitgeist, however, only shows month by month, right? I wasn’t clear in the fact that I’m wondering what the most searched terms of all time are, or at least year by year. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2006, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-see-a-ranking-of-the-most-searched-terms-on-google-most-popular-sites/358862/4 "2006-05-31T13:36:06Z")
[Swarm](http://www.swarmthe.com/) > [@](#): > > Swarm shows you what websites people are visiting, [right now](http://www.swarmthe.com/go/swarm). > > Swarm is a graphical map of hundreds of websites, all connecting to each other. It updates itself every second with where people are going and coming from. As sites become more popular, they move towards the center of the swarm and grow larger… ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2006, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-see-a-ranking-of-the-most-searched-terms-on-google-most-popular-sites/358862/5 "2006-05-31T13:54:49Z")
> [@gitfiddle](#): > > Also, what are the most popular sites on the internet? Alexa is a website that offers traffic details for any website. Here’s their page for [straightdope.com](http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main?q=straightdope.com&url=straightdope.com). You can see the sites ranked by [overall traffic](http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_500) , or by a [specific category](http://www.alexa.com/browse?&CategoryID=263991). ---
**Author:** ![Operation\_Ripper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/34f0e0/32.png) [@Operation\_Ripper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Operation_Ripper)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2006, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-see-a-ranking-of-the-most-searched-terms-on-google-most-popular-sites/358862/6 "2006-05-31T18:54:02Z")
> [@drewbert](#): > > [This page](http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html) lists popular search terms on Google. Wonder if they cut out porn terms, can’t believe “lesbian” isn’t always somewhere in the top ten. ---
**Author:** ![gitfiddle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/898d66/32.png) [@gitfiddle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gitfiddle)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2006, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-see-a-ranking-of-the-most-searched-terms-on-google-most-popular-sites/358862/7 "2006-05-31T19:01:16Z")
> [@](#): > > Wonder if they cut out porn terms, can’t believe “lesbian” isn’t always somewhere in the top ten. That’s what I was thinking. There’s no way these sites are showing all the information if they don’t at least mention that there are a substantial amount of searches for porn. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2006, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-see-a-ranking-of-the-most-searched-terms-on-google-most-popular-sites/358862/8 "2006-05-31T21:32:43Z")
> [@anson2995](#): > > Alexa is a website that offers traffic details for any website. Here’s their page for [straightdope.com](http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main?q=straightdope.com&url=straightdope.com). You can see the sites ranked by [overall traffic](http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_500) , or by a [specific category](http://www.alexa.com/browse?&CategoryID=263991). I have my suspicions about this site’s accuracy. > [@Alexa](#): > > Site Stats for [straightdope.com](http://straightdope.com): Speed: Very Fast (93% of sites are slower) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2006, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-see-a-ranking-of-the-most-searched-terms-on-google-most-popular-sites/358862/9 "2006-05-31T23:03:56Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > I have my suspicions about this site’s accuracy. 😉 > [@Alexa](#): > > Site Stats for [straightdope.com](http://straightdope.com): Speed: Very Fast (93% of sites are slower) Maybe that’s only to access the front page. The message board has a different address. But I know where you’re coming from. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-see-a-ranking-of-the-most-searched-terms-on-google-most-popular-sites/358862/10 "2006-06-01T00:34:23Z")
> [@gitfiddle](#): > > Zeitgeist, however, only shows month by month, right? I wasn’t clear in the fact that I’m wondering what the most searched terms of all time are, or at least year by year. In the [Zeitgeist archives](http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist/archive.html) (sounds like some sort of pan-dimensional omni-database…), you can go to any year before the current one and view year-end summaries. ---
**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-see-a-ranking-of-the-most-searched-terms-on-google-most-popular-sites/358862/11 "2006-06-01T10:03:25Z")
here you can see what is popular in different countries [http://www.google.com/press/intl-zeitgeist.html](http://www.google.com/press/intl-zeitgeist.html) . What is interesting that only in the US do celebrities totally dominate the searches. And that pokemon is still popular in Norway? ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-see-a-ranking-of-the-most-searched-terms-on-google-most-popular-sites/358862/12 "2006-06-01T10:50:00Z")
> [@scm1001](#): > > here you can see what is popular in different countries [http://www.google.com/press/intl-zeitgeist.html](http://www.google.com/press/intl-zeitgeist.html) . What is interesting that only in the US do celebrities totally dominate the searches. That’s not totally true. Japan and Korea are both utterly dominated by celeb searches (makes sense, since both are celebrity-obsessed in the real world as well). They kinda make the US look tame, actually 🙂 > [@](#): > > And that pokemon is still popular in Norway? Now THAT’s scary. ---
**Author:** ![wolfstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wolfstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfstu)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-see-a-ranking-of-the-most-searched-terms-on-google-most-popular-sites/358862/13 "2006-06-01T13:03:06Z")
> [@scm1001](#): > > here you can see what is popular in different countries [http://www.google.com/press/intl-zeitgeist.html](http://www.google.com/press/intl-zeitgeist.html) . What is interesting that only in the US do celebrities totally dominate the searches. And that pokemon is still popular in Norway? If the main page is the US results, then it’s interesting to compare them to neighboring Canada, where such things as: ```auto 1. nhl 2. canada 3. air canada 4. lavalife 5. canadian tire 6. mls 7. westjet 8. love ``` … come out on top. Amusing to see the top two. ---
**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-see-a-ranking-of-the-most-searched-terms-on-google-most-popular-sites/358862/14 "2006-06-01T13:57:43Z")
actually I may be wrong on the US searches as there doesnt seem to be a page that definitely states that these are the main searches from the USA (as opposed to subject areas). However, I suspect that as the main (world or US?) searches are dominated by minor american celebrities, then I am right.