richardbarley.com

[France] Google and Yahoo have both published their most searched terms of 2009. TechCrunch already took a detailed look at the US rankings, but now let’s see what we can learn from the top search terms in France for 09…

Google Zeitgeist (most popular search terms in France):

1. facebook
2. youtube
3. jeux (Games)
4. you
5. yahoo
6. tv
7. orange
8. meteo (Weather Forecast)
9. le bon coin
10. hotmail

No big surprise here with big players such as Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo, Orange and Hotmail. Le bon coin, which you may not know, is the leading classified ads website in France.

Google Searches with the highest progression:

1. allostreaming
2. facebook
3. bon coin
4. yahoo mail
5. web mail
6. iphone
7. jeux.fr
8. roland garros
9. robert pattinson
10. mappy michelin

This is perhaps the most interesting trend: the search term “allostreaming” has had the highest progression, although it’s not difficult to understand why. This year saw the introduction of “Hadopi”, the anti-piracy law. This phenomenon is also visible in other search terms with “streaming” being popular too, or “M6 replay” which is the catch-up TV solution provided by TV channel M6.

It’s also interesting to see that the iPhone is featured in this list even though the phone has been available in France since the end of 2007. The buzz around Apple’s device is still huge here though, mainly because the three main operators sell it.

Robert Pattinson has the 9th position here, but Twilight is number one in the entertainment category ahead of Michael Jackson. French teenagers, like millions of others around the world, are now completely mad about Twilight.

Yahoo France Retrospective

Even if Yahoo! Search has a small market share here in France – around 3% of searches, while Google has 88% (AT Internet) – we can still gain some insight from their retrospective.

First of all, several Yahoo! rankings confirm two big trends from Google’s list: Twilight mania in France and that Michael Jackson was the celebrity news story of the year.

The general ranking is mainly composed of “media” searches (see below), a bias coming from the fact that Yahoo! is seen more as a news portal or media destination rather than a generic search engine like Google.

1. Secret Story
2. Olympique de Marseille
3. Michael Jackson
4. Paris Saint-Germain
5. Travian
6. Rihanna
7. Grippe A
8. Tout le monde veut prendre sa place
9. Nouvelle Star
10. AS Saint-Etienne

We also have three football teams (Olympique de Marseille, Paris Saint-Germain and AS Saint-Etienne), two online games (Travian and Tout le monde veut prendre sa place), two celebrities (Rihanna and Michael Jackson), two TV shows (Secret Story - a Big Brother-like show and Nouvelle Star - French Pop Idol) and, not surprisingly, the Grippe A  - H1N1 Flu.

Ref: Google Zeitgeist France 2009 and Yahoo! France Retrospective 2009.

I can attest to the fascination with Twilight and Michael Jackson over here. And also unsurprised to see "Grippe A' in there too, as folks over here are total hypochondriacs and thus are obsessed with 'La Grippe'!

Leboncoin.fr is, I believe, where @kevindixie and @sylvied sold all their worldly goods prior to their move back to the UK, so looks like that's one to consider next time we're looking to shift some of our unwanted stuff!

Here's hoping that 'Twitter' makes its way in there next year, so I don't have to keep on explaining what my job is to dumbfounded locals... :)