Google Announces Top 10 Gainers for the Week Ending December 30

Google Announces Top 10 Gainers for the Week Ending December 30

It may have been Christmas week, but three noteworthy significant deaths emerged among the top search queries for the week on Google.com. Two were U.S. figures who assumed larger than life proportions: [James Brown], who died Dec. 25 at 73,and former President [Gerald Ford], who was 93 when he passed away Dec. 26. A third death in the news was former Iraqi dictator [Saddam Hussein], who was hanged Dec. 29 after being found guilty of war crimes in November.

More standard seasonal queries included [norad], or the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which has tracked Santa by radar for 50 Christmases; the new musical blockbuster-wannabe [Dreamgirls], which opened on Christmas to positive reviews; and [music downloads], which undoubtedly attracted many a holiday gift recipient. Two non-seasonal but news-making searches this week were for [che], the iconic revolutionary persona based on the Argentine who supported Fidel Castro in the 1950s. Target stores were selling a CD case with his image, but after protests, pulled it from the shelves. And then there was [Jessica Cutler], the tell-all D.C. blogger whose public reports of her trysts with another Capitol Hill staffer have resulted in a lawsuit filed by the aggrieved ex.

But back to the holidays, or more precisely, thinking beyond New Year’s. The last search query in this week’s list speaks to a predictable seasonal resolve: [weight watchers]. 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 gainers on Google.com, when comparing search queries that have risen by a significant percentage for the week of December 24-30, 2006.

Read the complete Press Release