Bieber, iPad, Olympics lead Google searches by Canadians

Online in 2010, Canadians were enamoured with Justin Bieber, the iPad, the World Cup and the Olympics, as well as sites like Facebook and YouTube, according to Google's Zeitgeist, atally of the most sought out and fastest rising query subjects on the search engine.

The site released its annual compilation on Thursday, breaking down results for numerous countries, including the U.S., Chile, France, Mexico, the U.K. and Canada.

Social networking website Facebook was tops in Google Canada's "Most Popular Searches" list, followed by video-sharing website YouTube and Google itself. Perennial interests like news, email (namely Hotmail), weather, classifieds (in the form of listings site Kijiji) and maps were also popular search topics.

Stratford, Ont.-born Bieber truly became a worldwide sensation this year and his popularity was reflected in the 2010 findings. The 16-year-old singer landed on several Google Canada lists, includingoverall "Fastest Rising" search category, "Fastest Rising People" and "Fastest Rising Entertainment." He was also third on Google's global "Fastest Rising Queries" list.

Canadian rapper Drake, Nova Scotian hockey star Sidney Crosby, hip-hop newcomer Nicki Minaj, veteran rapper Eminem and reality TV figure Kim Kardashian were among the other famous faces Canadians wanted to know more about.

Teen-centred TV hit Glee was a recurring point of interest in the realm of entertainment-related searches, while the changing nature of our consumption habits was reflected by the many who sought info about Netflix, the TV and movie subscription service,and video-sharing website Megavideo.

Two of the year's biggest sporting events were among the hottest subjects online, with the World Cup and the Vancouver Olympics noted both in Google Canada's "Fastest Rising" search terms and in the "Fastest Rising in Sports" category. Sports fans also searched for information about the late NHLer Bob Probert, accomplished soccer player David Villa and May's UFC 113 event in Montreal.

When considering high-tech gadgets, Apple products and e-readers drew the most interest for Canadians, with the iPad, iPhone 4 and iPod Touch as well the Kindle and the term "e-reader" noted on the "Fastest Rising in Consumer Electronics" list.

Overall, video chat-matchmaker site Chatroulette and the iPad were the two "Fastest Rising" queries among Canadians.

Pulling back to a worldwide analysis, Google's top global events were the World Cup, the Vancouver Olympics, the Haiti earthquake, the BP oil spill and the immense ash cloud causedby the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull.

Rivals Yahoo and Bing also recently released their lists of the top searches of 2010.

Though both included similar results to Google's (Bieber, the World Cup and Kardashian), the Yahoo and Bing lists also included topics like American Idol, Barack Obama, Tiger Woods and Wal-mart.