The royal wedding rocketed to the head of the list of fastest rising top Google searches in Britain, as interest in Kate Middleton’s marriage to Prince William peaked the public’s interest.
Technology, games and celebrities dominated Google’s annual “Zeitgeist” list, but it seems Brit’s still love a bargain, with Groupon bucking the trend to reach an admirable fourth place.
Apple’s iPhone 5 was the second fastest rising search term. The yet-to-be released mobile beat the readily available iPad 2, which was three places behind making it fifth on the fastest rising list.
Googling gamers put EA’s Fifa 12 third, ahead of popular building-block brainteaser Minecraft which languished in eighth place.
Jackass stuntman Ryan Dunn came sixth, after his tragic death in a car crash in June 2011. Singers Adele, Rebecca Black and Ed Sheeran also captured popular imagination, coming in at seventh, nineth and tenth places respectively.
Talking to the Metro, web expert Alan Stevens, director of MediaCoach said: “It looks to me like we’re a nation of bargain-hunting, celebrity obsessed royalists
"I think it’s the influence of television and particularly the influence of reality television."
Most people are still logging on to speak to friends though, with Facebook topping the overall search phrase list. YouTube is the second most searched and Hotmail is third on the list.
Perhaps the most amusing index is the “What is” list as Britons take to Google with sometimes daft queries.
People were puzzled by AV (alternative vote), which was the top “what is” search term, but also baffled by the what the heck scampi actually is as the shellfish-tail pub grub came second.
Truffles caused confusion, whilst piles came fourth on the list. Googlers were keen to find out what 4D was, while cookies and copyright came sixth and seventh.
Depressing or accurate, it's an interesting portrayal of the Great British online. Google stripped the list of any pornography search terms.