Google released its annual Zeitgeist report today, showing 2011's "10 fastest-rising global queries." It's exactly what you might expect from the internet: (10) iPad2 (9) Steve Jobs (8) Fukushima (7) Adele (6) iPhone5 (5) Battlefield 3 (4) Casey Anthony (3) Ryan Dunn (2) Google+ and yes, at number one, Rebecca Black.
But what did people in the New York metro area search most in 2011? Drumroll please...
(10) Brooklyn Bowl (9) Brooklyn Public Library (8) Ezpass (7) NYCDOE (6) Hurricane Irene Path (5) Con Edison (4) DMV NY (3) Hopstop (2) NJ Transit and at number one, the MTA!
The MTA makes sense at the top of the list. Aside from the usual checking on train times, weekend schedules etc..., there was plenty of MTA news for New Yorkers to read about this year— Second Avenue subway dynamiting, that time the whole MTA shut down for Hurricane Irene, pension scandals, trash problems, a new man in charge, derailments, undercover cops, abandoned stations, suicides, underground cell phone service, attacks on subway workers, rejected Islamophobic subway ads, budget problems, nostalgia trains, and rats, lots of rats.
But with the exception of Brooklyn Bowl (where did that come from?!) the city's Google habits are far more mature, responsible and downright boring than we were expecting. Just a bunch of people getting directions, checking on train delays and paying electric bills. No Anthony Weiner? Bronx Zoo Cobra? Mister PeePee? Come on New York, we don't have to be so adult about all this.
(Huffington Post New York, of course, will include 2011's top New York search terms in the headline of every story we write from now on.)
And now, get some tissues and watch this video Google put out looking back at 2011. What a year.
[VIA]