All the Zeitgeist (including an explanation and South African results)

What is Zeitgeist? It's Google's search trends by month / by year. What's hot, what's not kind of thing, split by country.

(Just a side note here - I'm putting these definitions in, because I have this funny feeling that the "blogosphere" can be fairly intimidating to new users. 2 years ago - I wouldn't have had a CLUE what Zeitgeist was. And I've seen a lot of blogs just slapping theses results down as if it's common knowledge and needs no explanation. There we go. Humanitarian blogging!)

As for the South African results - obviously November is the latest they've released... Shows interesting cultural trends though. We're a lot less concerned, at the moment, with things like celebrities and social media - and more concerned with banking and cellphones. A developing economy indeed! Kudos to us.

From the press release:
Zeitgeist Explained: zeit·geist Pronunciation: 'tsIt-"gIst, 'zIt Function: noun Etymology: German, from Zeit (time) + Geist (spirit) Date: 1884 Meaning: the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era.

And the results...

Google.com - Top Searches in 2006
1. bebo
2. myspace
3. world cup
4. metacafe
5. radioblog
6. wikipedia
7. video
8. rebelde
9. mininova
10. wiki

Google News - Top Searches in 2006
1. paris hilton
2. orlando bloom
3. cancer
4. podcasting
5. hurricane katrina
6. bankruptcy
7. martina hingis
8. autism
9. 2006 nfl draft
10. celebrity big brother 2006

South Africa - Popular Queries: November 2006
1. absa
2. mango airlines
3. vodacom
4. fnb
5. news24
6. standard bank
7. kulula
8. christmas
9. nedbank
10. paris hilton
11. vodacom4me
12. unisa
13. britney spears
14. saa
15. iol