Most Searched Queries and Controversial Issues of 2009

Update: This post can now be read at Daily Blog Tips under Technology.

Bear in mind that my opinions on this issues are primarily based on my observations and the stats on my weblog:

The Jaycee Dugard Case
My post (Simple Female Intuition Saved JC Dugard) about this is my most visited although I know it isn’t my best! (the minimal comments might have indicated that.) From August 30 until now, it has garnered more than 4,500 visits and it’s still being visited.

Death of Michael Jackson
People expected this issue to stay the hottest but they were surprised it dived even though it continues to be reviewed more than the Dugard issue. Why? Many people specially journos can answer this. Some people are even
angry because they believe there’s more media hype to it than truth. Can you please give your take?

H1N1 Virus and Swine Flu
From my on-line observations, I would say that this was really one of the most controversial. And it has more articles than the previous two. Journalists, scientists, and even politicians joined the debates. The biggest topics were: Does the virus really exist? Is it worth getting the vaccine? I even saw an article claiming that China shot down a CIA plane that was trying to spray the virus inside China!

New FTC Affiliates Ad Rules
Another one of the hottest. But just considering that the media, businesses, and freelance writers are involved. And you can just imagine the numbers.
I remind bloggers who do affiliate marketing to review the new rules. The gist of the rules is that we must declare what and how much we earn from affiliating –although the rules seems fuzzier than that.

News Corp and Microsoft vs Google
I think this interests me the most since it’s the battle of the giants. Again, the media, businesses, and freelance writers are involved. Since this is an ongoing issue, I think no one could predict yet how controversial this would be. But I dare predict that this would outlast all these other issues mentioned here.

Wikipedia Snob
This was the issue between Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and Wikipedia. And this one is a bit serendipitous for me. When I stumbled upon WikiHow, I find the site has just the right degree of strictness and not as academic or snobbish as Wikipedia. I wrote about that in my short post WikiHow:

If you find that Wikipedia is too strict, snobbish, or too academic, try writing as volunteer for Wikihow. It’s only strict concerning sources which is just as any site should be. Wikihow is also a carbon neutral website.

After 2 days, 49,000 volunteers left Wikipedia and WSJ bashed Wikipedia on that. After 2 days again, Wikipedia reacted to WSJ’s attack but in a humble way.

Now this is Google Zeitgeist list of the top 10 fastest rising queries across the globe.

Fastest Rising (Global)
1.Michael Jackson
2.Facebook
3.Tuenti
4.Twitter
5.Sanalika
6.New Moon
7.Lady Gaga
8.Windows 7
9.dantri.com.vn
10.Torpedo Gratis

Google Zeitgeist is the tool if you want to peek into the global mindset. It also reveals interesting trends across various categories and countries, and how the lists were created.

This is a participating post on the Group Writing Project of Daily Blog Tips. http://www.dailyblogtips.com/group-writing-project-2009-in-review/
pochp -12/2/09