EcoMeme: Green & Googled in 2009

google search

Google’s annual most-searched-terms report, In The News page. Keeping It Green rankings were based on search terms within the subcategory of “green energy,” the report notes with an asterisk.

No offense, solar and renewable energy, but there’s more to the green movement than y’all! That’s why we ferreted out other green keywords and concepts we could find charting throughout the U.S. Zeitgeist 2009 report.

Sticking to the news page, under the category of In the Economy, “cash for clunkers” charted at number two of 10 terms, behind the all encompassing “crisis,” while “green” charted at the eighth most searched, economy-related term in Google News. In last year’s regional searches in 2009 public transit searches ranked in the top 10, including BART schedules at nine for San Francisco, the MTA Trip Planner and Hopstop.com at three and six for New York City, the Madison, Wisconsin Metro schedule at six for that region, and in Chicago, at two and four, the CTA bus planner and RTA Trip Planner.

Finally, on a page of household-related searches, food and drink category, the Acai Berry topped the list.

Zeitgeist reports don’t reflect the same categories year over year, exactly. And as search and business guru John Batelle griped in his own blog on Tuesday, results didn’t reflect December 2009 searches on Google.

But, let’s hope they’ll make Green a permanent Zeitgeist feature, and help sway the “collective consciousness” to the environmentally responsible side.

Basic Reading:

A slideshow at the Huffington Post reflects the Zeitgeist 2009 results.

EcoMeme, a column featuring eco news, tech and business highlights by Lora Kolodny.