Several search engines produce annual lists of the "top search terms" though these are not always reliable. As the San Francisco Chronicle points out, "the lists are filtered of pornography and, in some cases, generic words and company names. Editing is intended to make the findings more interesting (ie, dominated by pop culture) and family friendly ("sex" is forbidden)."
According to Yahoo, the top searches were for Britney Spears, "World Wrestling Entertainment, Colombian pop star Shakira, singer Jessica Simpson and Paris Hilton". The article provides Top 10 lists for Yahoo, Ask and Google.
Still, for a more accurate, unfiltered snapshot of what interests Internet users, it's necessary to go to a third-party firm that tracks Web traffic. For example, Nielsen//NetRatings, which examined queries on all search engines for The Chronicle through November 2006, found that the leading terms were pretty dull: Google, eBay, MySpace, Yahoo and Mapquest.
No pop divas appeared in the top 100 terms. And contrary to popular belief, adult terms were low on the list, with "porn" at No. 38 and "sex" at No. 45.
It's not obvious why people should search Google for Google, though presumably many people do. However, it does provide handy links to various Google services -- Maps, News, Video, Groups etc. Google Docs & Spreadsheets just scrapes in as the last item on page 3....
