Analysis by Patrick Avenell
SYDNEY, NSW: Yahoo!7, the forgotten player in the search engine market, has today released the Top 10 most popular searches of 2010 (apparently December doesn’t count). What this list reveals is just how focused on inane celebrity culture Australia has become.
There are six celebrities in the list — including Lady Gaga at #1 — which shows the thirst Australians, especially Gen Y, now have for living their lives vicariously through glamorous, though mostly untalented, zeitgeist individuals. At least Lady Gaga does something: Kim Kardashian, a woman famous for being born into a family of rich, narcissistic ne’er do anythings is at #7.
The only male on the least is Justin Bieber (#3), who has had a string of hit songs in 2010. Plus, his ill-fated appearance of Seven’s Sunrise program no doubt led all men and anyone else over 15 years old to research exactly who he is.
The only entries on the list which add any respectability to Australia’s online search habits are the World Cup at #2, the Federal Election 2010 at #5 and Oil Spill at #9. Rihanna, a woman famous for liking it when she’s hurt and loving it when she’s being deceived, still managed to chart higher than the world’s worst environmental disaster, coming in at #8.
For the tech heads out there, the iPhone 4/iPad (apparently they are the same product?) was listed at #4. This ranking goes someway to proving that Apple’s renaissance has done as much good for online news sites as it has done bad for its competitors in PC and mobile phone land.
Completing the Top 10 is Megan Fox, who is using her dubious vulpine skills to thwart metallic metamorphosis whilst getting married to former 90210 hunk Brian Austin Green.
At #6 on the list is Lindsay Lohan. She’s famous for starring in a movie called 'I Know Who Killed Me'. Eminent film critic Richard Roeper called it the world movie of the 2000s.
Full List
1. Lady Gaga
2. World Cup
3. Justin Bieber
4. iPhone 4/iPad
5. Federal Election 2010
6. Lindsay Lohan
7. Kim Kardashian
8. Rihanna
9. Oil Spill
10. Megan Fox
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