Facebook login is the the fastest rising search topics on Google’s Ethiopia site in 2010
Google’s annual “zeitgeist”, which analyses the firm’s search trends in each country, revealed that Facebook is the site that dominated Google Ethiopia’s site Facebook is closely followed by yahoo.
The Google Zeitgeist, an annual collection of queries, was released this week, showing that many terms and topics that Web users mainly in Addis Ababa explored during the past year, from “facebook login” to ““youtube music”. The report does not offer similar data for other major cities of Ethiopia.
According to Google the Zeitgeist means “the spirit of the times,” and Google tells this spirit through the aggregation of millions of search queries that Google receives every day. Google has several tools that give insight into global, regional, past and present search trends. These tools are available for all users to explore and learn from. These are easy and free to use for everything from complex research to very simple answers.
Therefore which search inquiries had the strongest presence in 2010 in Ethiopia? I will try to give my own observation on this year’s Google Zeitgeist:
What did not astonish me: When it comes to search terms trending on Google,Facebook is becoming life style amongst Ethiopian youth therefore, I do not have any doubt that many of Addis Ababa young people are searching facebook on Google. It’s no surprise that the Addis Ababa’s teen sensation led the category for Web Search Interest: facebook
What made me lose some faith in Ethiopian Politics: I cannot think of better and easy way to put this, so let’ me be tactful : “Arsenal” placed in top twenty rankings higher than any of big political figures or Ethiopian Election for uncategorized searches of Google Ethiopia. In other words, people in Addis Ababa are more interested in for a certain European Football Club than the largest political event in Ethiopia which was Ethiopian Election 2010 0r a big political figure like Bertukuan Mideksa or Berhanu Nega.`
What made me disillusioned on the fame of big figures of Ethiopia: Where are Tesfaye Gebreab and his new book Yedersiw Mastawesha? Where is Haile Gerima or Haile G/Selassie. Ethiopians did not search about this big name figures. The lists are based on a scientific aggregation of search entries so if you didn’t make it, it’s hard to cry for bias or internet literacy of the users as users are mainly from Addis Ababa and they are claimed to be good facebook users. I am confused that how the likes of Haile G/Selassie that has dominated the news this summer for his decision to hung on his athletics boots wouldn’t manage to at least crack the search list.
What made me strengthen my thoughts on silent revolution: It has been a while since many Ethiopians try to get pornographic contents online and its meteoric rise, sexing is a term better known for its indecent contents on the web. sexing is ranked amongst top ten on the “Fastest Rising” search list.
As a bonus, here is the link to see the Ethiopia’s top searches in 2010 http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=%2C&geo=ET&date=1%2F2010%2012m&cmpt=q
Endalk Chala 
Hi Endalk, thanks for sharing those facts. Good job! Actually, I would expect most of the top searched terms from Ethiopian based internet users. But it is good you have written about it, at least, for the record. I looked up results from users in Canada, USA, Afghanistan, and Somalia. There are almost exact similar results for users from the first two countries, facebook being on top of their choice. The top searched terms from users of the second two countries are their respective country names. Same applies to Ethiopian users. What puzzled me is people from the developing world seem to me more interested about their country while those from the developed world are interested in something different. Isn’t this kind of weird? Because, in real life people in the developing world are into knowing what the hell is going in the Western world. Well, I did a very shallow research and it may not indicate the real situation. But, I hope you come up with an in depth analysis of this issue next time. Berta!
zelalem