What did we search for this year? The Google Brand Zeitgeist will leave you amazed and possibly a little embarrassed

For starters we were more likely to search for Gumtree than we were for the Commonwealth Bank. Perhaps we’re just more interested in second hand stuff than mortgaging ourselves to the hilt for a new home loan?

And really, have you searched for an ad this year? I don’t mean the mega cool ones that Anthill TV puts out there, clearly, those ones rock. But, did you really search for the Coles ad with Status Quo showing that they really will take on any work to pay for the upkeep on their mansions?

That’s right the world’s most annoying ad jingle, “Down, down, prices are down”, was the most searched for ad on the internet this year.

Really, Australia? That’s how we’re using the internet?

To give credit where it’s due, the now-banned Lynx Balls ad was also on the search radar of many Australians this year.

Despite the grumbling from many traditional retailers, their brands are amongst the most searched shopping brands this year. The only overseas brands to crack into the top 10 were Amazon and the UK-based fashion behemoth, ASOS. The rest are the traditional offline, Australian based stores. Whether they delivered what we were searching for is another conversation entirely.

And finally, in shock twist, Australians searched for beer. No, really, we did!

The Brand Zeitgeist explained

Google reveals the Internet “Brand Zeitgeist” (Zeitgeist = German for “the spirit of the times”) through an exploration of the billions of search queries we receive each year. In addition to the year-end Zeitgeist, which highlights the top trends of 2012, Google also offers several free tools that give insight into global, regional, past and present search trends. http://www.google.com.au/trends.

The Google Brand Zeitgeist List 2012