Internet Searches Still A Consumer-Dominated Activity

For all the discussion of Google, Yahoo, and other major search engines in the IT trade press as an increasingly essential business tool, use of the technology to search the Web is still the unquestionable domain of consumers.According to the year-end roundup of the most popular searches performed by Dogpile as well as Google itself, the top global searches of the year were celebrities, celebrities, celebrities. Oh yes, sports reared its head, as did social networking. But nary a business term in sight. (Google's complete list is available on the Google Zeitgeist site.)

Of course, these numbers don't reflect the attempts by search engine giants to promote use of business versions of their engines inside enterprises. Google is trying hard to increase its penetration and IBM and Yahoo have joined forces to offer a free business search engine that searches both the Web and within enterprises. And IT managers are now on alert that they'd better put their own desktop search into place or their users will turn to consumer ones.

Have any thoughts about the search zeitgeist? Have your own technology-related end-of-the-year top 10 list? Let us know by responding below.