'Facebook' tops list of most-searched-for terms of 2011
"Facebook" was the term most frequently searched for by American Internet users in 2011, according to a report from Experian Hitwise, part of the Experian Marketing Group.
In fact, "facebook" dominated Experian's top ten list, showing up in four different iterations: "Facebook login" was the third most searched for term this year. "Facebook.com" was fifth, and "www.facebook.com" came in eighth.
The full list looks like this:
1. facebook
2. youtube
3. facebook login
4. craigslist
5. facebook.com
6. yahoo
7. ebay
8. www.facebook.com
9. mapquest
10. yahoo.com
This is the third year in a row that "facebook" has topped the list. Searches for that one-word term were up 46% this year from 2010. Multiple-term searches including "facebook" were up 24% from last year.
"Navigational searches dominated the top search results as users typed in terms versus typing in the URL in the browser bar," Simon Bradstock, a general manager of Experian Hitwise, said in a statement.
Single-word searches rose 11% users came to expect that their search engine would fill in the rest of the terms for them.
The most frequently searched-for public figures, Experian, said were Justin Bieber at No. 1 and Casey Anthony at No. 2. (Charlie Sheen was No. 6.)
In the movies category, "Star Wars" -- surprisingly -- came in at No. 1, followed by "Transformers 3" and the "Breaking Dawn" installment of the "Twilight" series.
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-- Deborah Netburn
Photo: Facebook's logo, displayed at the company's office in New York. Credit: Scott Eells / Bloomberg
