What the hive mind is really interested in

A caution to enthusiasts of collective intelligence: the just-released 2006 Year-End Google Zeitgeist. Did global warming, Iraq, globalization, Web 2.0, or Polonium-210 make the list? No... top 10 searches were:

1. paris hilton
2. orlando bloom
3. cancer
4. podcasting
5. hurricane katrina
6. bankruptcy
7. martina hingis
8. autism
9. 2006 nfl draft
10. celebrity big brother 2006

Broadly speaking, this confirms my contention, based on a careful analysis of the popularity of videos on YouTube, that the hive mind is interested in 1) cats doing funny things, and 2) people doing embarrassing things.... Only there aren't any cats in the Top 10 (and forget leaving a comment mentioning Paris Hilton, because everyone else has thought of that joke, too).

[via Rough Type]

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