Death and scandal dominate Google hit list
Swiss internet users were fascinated mostly by death and wayward celebrities in 2011.
The search engine analysed millions of terms typed by Swiss surfers and published the most popular ones on Thursday.
The celebrity list was topped by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund whose chances of becoming the next French president were scuppered in May when he got embroiled in a sex scandal in New York.
Strauss-Kahn was followed by troubled British singer Amy Winehouse, who died in July aged 27, and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died in October aged 56.
Pippa Middleton, who almost outshone her sister at the latter’s wedding to Prince William at the end of April, made it into the top ten of fastest-growing names.
Unsurprisingly, the most-searched for Swiss celebrity was tennis star Roger Federer, followed by rapper Bligg and Angela Martini, a previously relatively unknown model whose appearance at an awards ceremony in New York in June had people scrambling to their computers to learn more. The fact that she’d forgotten her underwear probably played a role.
When it came to search terms, the social networking site Facebook was at the top, followed by YouTube, Hotmail and… Google.
The list of most popular events in Switzerland was headed by big musical festivals: Paléo, Greenfield and the Openair Frauenfeld. The Montreux Jazz Festival came fifth.
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