Revolution and jokes, Google reveals top search queries

US-based internet company Google has released its annual Zeitgeist report, providing an insight into the top search queries conducted in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Despite all of the global events this year, UAE residents were more concerned with local affairs as “Dubai” topped this year’s Google searches in the country and “UAE” was the fifth most searched-for term.

Egyptians were more focused on their revolution with “Jan 25th revolution” coming top, followed by “Tahrir Square” and “Facebook”. And with all the economic devastation and political uncertainty, Egyptians appear to have been looking for a laugh as “Jokes 2011” came in fourth.

Saudi Arabians were more interested in Youtube, in fact Saudi Arabians watch more videos on Youtube than any other nation. US-based social networking website “Facebook” placed second in the list.

“Every day we get more than one billion searches on Google for information worldwide, and the UAE in particular is the third-fastest growing country in the Mena [Middle East and North Africa] region, in terms of search queries,” says Mohammad Mourad, Gulf regional manager at Google.

Top searches in the UAE:

1. Dubai
2. Facebook
3. Download
4. YouTube
5. UAE
6. Yahoo
7. Google
8. News
9. Movies
10. Games

Egypt’s fastest-rising queries

1. Jan 25th revolution
2. Tahrir Square
3. Facebook
4. Jokes 2011
5. Al- Youm Al Sabaa
6. Mubarak’s trial
7. Twitter
8. Ministry of Finance
9. Google Gravity
10. The Forbidden Love series

Saudi Arabia’s fastest-rising queries

1. YouTube
2. Facebook
3. Hafez
4. Games
5. Twitter
6. Sponge Bob
7. Al-Jazeera
8. Qalb Qalb (Heart heart) Song
9. Al-Arabia
10. Al-Tasleef Bank