The Google Alphabet, 2008 edition

Google has added Google Suggest to their homepage. When Google suggest first-launched Buster McLeod (AKA Erik Benson) checked the suggested term for each letter to create the Google Alphabet, 2004 edition. When Google News Suggest launched in 2006 I did the same. Now in honor of Google Suggest graduating from labs here is the annotated Google Alphabet, 2008 edition:

A = amazon

B = bebo

C = craigslist (in 2004 this was cnn)

D = dictionary

E = ebay

F = facebook (in 2004 this was firefox’s turf)

G = gmail

H = hotmail

I = ikea

J = john lewis (the first result is for John Lewis, a UK retailer that I had never heard of till now)

K = kelly blue book

L = limewire

M = myspace

N = nbc olympics

O = olympics

P = photobucket (over Paypal and beating out 2004’s Paris HIlton)

Q = quotes (the first result is for The Quotations Page; I hadn’t realized how popular quotes were)

R = runescape

S = sears (I am impressed that Sears is able to beat second-place Skype; 2004 winner Spybot is gone)

T = target

U = utube (you know your site is popular when a misspelling is a top searched term; Google’s spell corrector doesn’t even try to stop this misspelling)

V = verizon wireless

W = wikipedia (www.youtube.com was ninth on this list)

X = xbox (the only Microsoft product to make the list this year; hotmail was a part of the alphabet in 2004 and gmail was not oops, hotmail is clearly still on the list)

Y = youtube (not a surprise with all the foreshadowing, but this does mean that Yahoo! is no longer on the list)

Z = zip codes

How does Google’s algorithms choose the alphabet, err top term? According to the FAQ it’s primarily popularity. There must be some other unnamed factors because some of the Google Trends matchups don’t support that.

Here’s Yahoo! vs. YouTube. Based on the chart it’s not surprising that YouTube has come out on top.

y trends chart

Its no surprise that Spybot is gone, but I would have guessed that Skype would come out above Sears.

s trends chart

The Olympics beat out second-place Orkut right now, but I wonder how long it will retain the top spot before coming back again in 2010.

o trends chart

People are more likely to look for free stuff than the news, not surprising that Craigslist is ahead of CNN:

c trends chart

It’s been a long, close battle, but Photobucket has definitely beaten out Paypal and Paris Hilton. Paris will probably be apart of the alphabet every so often when she gets a spike in notoriety.

p trends chart

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