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According to Google, Felix Baumgartner is one of the top five trending celebrities in Canada for 2012 (image courtesy Felix Baumgartner)

Crunching 2012 Google search trends: data analysis expert

That little white Internet search box is more of a door than a window, says Professor Periklis Andritsos, a data mining expert at the University of Toronto鈥檚 Faculty of Information Studies.

Google recently released its most searched and trending terms from 2012鈥攖rending meaning new top searches since 2011. At first glance, these Internet searches seem to present an intimate snapshot of our cultural psyche, from our desires (Canada鈥檚 top music search: One Direction) to our obsessions (Canada鈥檚 top food search: bacon) and our worries (Canada鈥檚 top 鈥榳hat is鈥︹ search: what is love?).

But those top search results aren鈥檛 as revealing as they might seem, Andritsos says.

鈥淭he Google results are nothing more than a reflection of people鈥檚 daily lifestyle,鈥 says Andritsos. 鈥淥ur top Google search results show that Canadians are a lot about music, we are a lot about sports. In Italy you will see a lot of searches about love-making and art鈥 it reveals a lot about people鈥檚 lives.鈥

To understand the real value of the Google search trends, Andritsos says, it takes more than computer-generated analytics to know what people are really seeking.

For example, the most popular 鈥渉ow to鈥 search in Canada for 2012 was 鈥渉ow to rock.鈥 With Canada鈥檚 musical history including the likes of Neil Young, Rush, and Arcade Fire, the popularity of that search was surprising to Andritsos.

鈥淐anadians already know how to rock,鈥 he says.

When he Googled the phrase, Andritsos discovered that 鈥淗ow To Rock鈥 is a sitcom from Nickelodeon.

鈥淗ere you can see how, on a positive note, humans are never going to be replaced,鈥 he says. 鈥淚 have to bring in knowledge in order to know these two terms are the same.

鈥淎 computer wouldn鈥檛 be able to tell which 鈥榟ow to rock鈥 I鈥檓 searching for. I need extra human knowledge and analysis to tell me that.鈥

Perhaps the more useful way of viewing these 2012 results, says Andritsos, is not to analyze who we are now, but to consider what the searches suggest about who we might be in the future.

鈥淐an I learn something from these searches鈥 historical data and predict the future?鈥 he asks. 鈥淭hat has a big impact.鈥

Andritsos noted the implications from public health (Google currently uses search trends to map flu outbreaks worldwide) to politics (the Obama campaign tracked voter support by analysing their web cookie data) to commercial opportunities:

鈥淢y life is going to be put on autopilot one day,鈥 he says. 鈥淚鈥檓 going to have my groceries in front of my door before I even think of what I鈥檓 missing from my fridge.鈥

鈥淲ith the big data explosion that exists out there, the ability to combine data from many different sources鈥攎y computer, my cellphone, my loyalty card at the supermarket, my Google searches鈥攕omebody鈥檚 going to be able to tell, tomorrow he鈥檚 going to buy this CD because he likes this particular music, so why don鈥檛 I send an email to him about it?鈥

Still curious about those top searches? Here is a selection from the Google 2012 Zeitgeist report:

Trending Searches in Canada

1.       Pinterest
2.       Hurricane Sandy
3.       Olympics
4.       Diablo 3
5.       Gangnam Style

Trending Celebrities in Canada

1.       Whitney Houston
2.       Jeremy Lin
3.       Michael Clarke Duncan
4.       Morgan Freeman
5.       Felix Baumgartner

Trending 鈥淲hat is鈥︹ in Canada

1.       What is Love
2.       What is SOPA
3.       What is Gluten
4.       What is Yolo
5.       What is Instagram

Trending 鈥淲hat is鈥︹ in South Africa

1.       What is love
2.       What is poverty
3.       What is illuminati
4.       What is cancer
5.       What is HIV

Trending 鈥淲hat is鈥︹ in United Kingdom

1.       What is love
2.       What is iCloud
3.       What is 3g
4.       What is scientology
5.       What is instagram

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