KEY POINTS:
New Zealand may have been engrossed in 2007 with bouts of navel gazing over police raids in the Ureweras, and a black year in sports, but the real interests of its internet users have been revealed as ... Paris Hilton.
More New Zealanders used the ubiquitous Google search engine to search for Hilton than any other "celebrity" during 2007. Other personalities to rank behind Hilton in NZ searches were Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, and a Disney star, Vanessa Hudgens, who was involved in a nude photo scandal in September.
The distinct lack of NZ culture was rounded out by the fifth most-search-for celebrity, one Perez Hilton, a Cuban-American celebrity blogger with a reputation as a Hollywood "gossip-gangsta" reporting the latest woes of ... Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Justin Timberlake.
The search company yesterday released its first end-of-year report for New Zealand users, listing the most-popular terms searched for on google.co.nz in the past year.
The report said that in sport, the Rugby World Cup was the term most searched - though the All Blacks ranked behind an American TV wrestling show - and that there was strong growth in searches for social networks.
The survey was compiled by looking at the aggregation of the most popular and fast-rising search queries being typed into the Google.co.nz search box.
The 10 fastest-rising New Zealand searches of 2007 were:
Facebook, Rugby World Cup, America's Cup, YouTube, Cricket World Cup, Grabaseat, Bebo, Kiwisaver, Heroes, and Vector Arena.
The top 10 searches for TV shows: Home and Away, American Idol, Heroes, Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Coronation Street, Prison Break, The Simpsons, Hannah Montana (on the Disney channel), and McLeod's Daughters.
Top 10 sports searches: Rugby World Cup, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), America's Cup, All Blacks, NRL, Super 14, Cricket World Cup, rugby, NBA, and the Melbourne Cup.
Top three searches for celebrity weddings: Aishwarya Rai wedding, Eva Longoria wedding, Melanie Lynskey wedding.
- NZPA
