Sarah Palin May Have Lost Political War, But She Was a Big Winner in the Google Battle

Submitted by Melissa Merz on 12/11/08

In political time, September 3 seems centuries ago. That's when I wrote a post about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's wild popularity among Internet searchers. It seems no one could get enough of the newly minted GOP vice presidential candidate. As TIME Magazine's Bill Tancer reported then:

In the week ending Aug. 30, 2008, searches for Governor Palin were almost four times as popular as Obama searches, eight times as popular as McCain searches and over 10 times more popular than searches for Biden.

Palin may have lost this election, but according to a new Newsweek article, when Google unveiled its massive year-end Zeitgist report  (which is a must-read) yesterday, Sarah Palin was the world's fastest rising search term in 2008. And according to reporter Barrett Sheridan, the Alaska governor's popularity went beyond her own name:

She (Palin) coined or was somehow related to four of the election season's top 10 most popular buzzwords: "maverick," "bridge to nowhere," "lipstick [on a] pig," and "hockey mom." The most sought-after catchphrase, however, was "Joe the Plumber." Perhaps Joe should capitalize on his popularity and heed the calls for him to run for the House of Representatives in 2010.

And Palin affected Google searches in other ways. Take a look at this Fey Accompli:

For the most part, the list of most popular political news sources is predictable. Fox, CNN and ABC lead the way, with Web-only sites like The Drudge Report and The Huffington Post also making an appearance on the top 10 list. But the ninth most popular news site is a surprise: "Saturday Night Live." Tina Fey's spot-on Palin impression certainly deserves credit for giving the 33-year-old franchise renewed relevance. (Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, strangely, are nowhere to be found.)

In the end, though, Google searches reflected political reality: "Obama" was the most popular search term on Google this year in absolute terms.

Check out the whole report -- it's an amazing glimpse into what people around the world are searching for.

Comments

Popularity Crisis: Sarah Palin

Submitted by Sofia K on 3/24/09.

<!--[if gte mso 9]>

Normal
0


false
false
false







MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>


<![endif]--><!--[if !mso]>

<![endif]--> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <![endif]-->

Political people have been famous in the media giving it unimpressive views from the public. As political figure, I think these people must be given due respect although they are controversial at some points. Sarah Palin is very famous right now especially on the web.It is because of her controversial life and opinions about many things like her idea on earmarked money, or government funds that are pegged for a specific cause. The only problem is that she asked for $140 million to be set aside for her state, which makes Alaska one of the biggest users of earmarks in the U.S. This is after she gave a large cash advance building an oil pipeline. And she's also having her daughters' contentious break up to deal with. Rumors are still going on around her running in 2012, but is she fails to live up to campaign promises it won't be an easy sell for Sarah Palin for President.