Tennis, Steve Irwin Stingray Death Dominate Weekly Google Zeitgeist

Tennis, Steve Irwin Stingray Death Dominate Weekly Google Zeitgeist

This past week, not only did the news that Australian adventurer Steve Irwin died at the hands of a stingray top the list; here are some of the other keywords for this query that appear high on the list: [stingray, crocodile hunter, stingray barb, steve erwin, steve irwin death, steve irwin dead, sting ray] and several other variations. Clearly, this incident captured the attention of millions of people searching for information on Google.

Apart from an unanticipated calamity, the other event that captured interest for the week was the U.S. Tennis Open in Forest Hills, New York, which led to queries about Agassi, Williams, Sharapova as well as “US Open.” (And football wasn’t far behind, with [Brady Quinn].) The news business itself also ranked high, both for a recent snafu (Kyra Phillips) and an upcoming debut (Katie Couric). Finally, at the end of August, tropical storms are never far from our thoughts (Hurricane John).

For breaking news and obscure information alike, people around the world search on Google. What follows is a summary of Google Zeitgeist results for the top 15 gainers on Google.com, when comparing search queries that have risen by a significant percentage for the week of August 29-September 4.

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