From the Google Blog, in response to raised eyebrows regarding the 2006 Google Zeitgeist:
The Zeitgeist is “the spirit of time.” This is why when we come up with the lists of top searches on Google.com for 2006, we do not simply retrieve the most frequently-searched terms for the period — the truth is, they don’t change that much from year to year. This list would be predominated by very generic searches, such as “ebay”, “dictionary”, “yellow pages,” “games,” “maps” — and of course, a number of X-rated keywords. These are constants, and although unquestionably popular, we don’t think they actually define the Zeitgeist.
Basically, Zeitgeist is Google’s take on what’s hot, but not necessarily most searched for. To make sure everyone gets it, Google have updated the Zeitgeist page with new wording.
Originally posted on December 29, 2006 @ 7:00 am