For a snapshot of what occupied the Italian mindset in 2010—at least online—look no further than lo Zeitgeist italiano 2010 di Google (Google Zeitgeist 2010). During the last month of the year, Google releases its annual Google Zeitgeist report, which aggregates billions of search queries people type into Google and, Google says, "captures the spirit of the year"—in this case, the interests and passions, current events and pop cultural references of Italians throughout 2010.
Le Parole Più Cercate del 2010
In 2010, the top ten most-searched terms on Google Italia (the Italian version of the search engine) in absolute numbers were:
1. facebook
2. youtube
3. libero (popular Italian e-mail client and portal)
4. meteo (weather)
5. giochi (games)
6. streaming
7. google
8. yahoo
9. corriere (Corriere della Sera, one of Italy's major daily newspapers.)
10. alice (popular Italian e-mail client and portal)
Not surprisingly, the survey revealed that in 2010 Italians wanted to share and socialize online, exchange video and views on YouTube and Facebook, and use the Web as another opportunity to inform and communicate. (The list proves yet again that, even after more than fifteen years of commercial availability, many people still don't understand the most basic function of browsers: namely, entering a character string into the address field of the browser as the straight-forward, quicker way to navigate to a site, rather than typing a term such as facebook, yahoo, or google(!) in a search engine.)
The survey also lists several other top ten searches on Google Italia organized into categories such as news, technology, fastest-rising searches, and fastest-falling, among a number of other groupings. Among the most sought after recipes were cazzilli palermitani, casatiello napoletano, and pasta di zucchero (sugar paste), while celebrities and media events such as Lady Gaga, Mauro Marin (from the Italian reality TV show Grande Fratello), iPad, and Mondiali 2010 also scored high in terms of popularity. Major news searches included Haiti, Besiktas, and Chile.
What Does "X" Mean
Perhaps the most intriguing list was the Ricerche associate alla parola “significato” di crescente popolarità—fastest rising searches of the type 'what does X mean?'. In 2010, the top ten queries of this type on Google Italia were:
1. bunga bunga
2. kippah
3. waka waka
4. networking
5. probiviri
6. concussione
7. bischero
8. sarcasmo
9. namasté
10. shoah
For those as inquisitive as Italians in 2010, bunga bunga refers to alleged lewd activity at Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's villa, a kippah is a yarmulke (the term was used in an anti-Semitic tirade by Italian Senator Giuseppe Ciarrapico), and Waka Waka was the official anthem of the FIFA World Cup 2010 (Shakira also played a version of the song in Spanish, and the band Elio e le Storie Tese did a parody of the song titled "Bunga Bunga" as satirical commentary on the various scandals besetting Berlusconi).
