Death, Disease, Money, and Twitter on Bing

Microsoft's Bing has revealed a top ten list of the most popular trending topics of 2009. To determine these, Bing analyzed billions of search queries and developed the list based on searches made with the Bing search (I mean decision) engine.

"Not surprisingly, we saw a lot of folks using Bing for quick access to favorite sites like Facebook, MSN, Youtube and Craigslist," says Bing Geneal Manager Danielle Tiedt. "We also saw a lot of more complex searches such as product related queries in which people used Bing to help decide what MP3 player to buy and travel searches to help find the best deals on a tropical vacation."

Here is the list Bing came up with:

1. Michael Jackson
2. Twitter
3. Swine Flu
4. Stock Market
5. Farrah Fawcett
6. Patrick Swayze
7. Cash for Clunkers
8. Jon and Kate Gosselin
9. Billy Mays
10. Jaycee Dugard

As you can see, dead celebrities took a lot of searchers' time this year (and there certainly were a lot to pass away in '09). It is no surprise that Twitter was high on the list. It has been a huge year for the company. With H1N1 and the economy dominating the news for much of the year, it is also unsurpsing to see terms like "swine flu," "stock market," and "cash for clunkers" on the list.

As a bonus, Bing provided a "sneak peek" at the top celebrity searches on Bing in 2009. The top three were Perez Hilton, followed by Robert Pattinson, and Megan Fox.


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comScore: Twitter’s Growth Continued In June

Arguments concerning Twitter's growth are more common than ever, but Twitter hasn't topped out yet, at least.  A new report from comScore indicates that the site managed to attract about 19 percent more unique visitors in June than in May. 

Here's some additional good news for fans of Twitter: if you look back to June of 2008, the site's growth rate is an astounding 1,460 percent.  Also, Erick Schonfeld writes, "ComScore now counts it as the No. 52 largest site in the world (bigger than ESPN, just shy of the BBC and Craigslist)."

That's a noteworthy stack of statistics.

Unfortunately for Twitter, there are a few other things to take into consideration.  For example: the deaths of Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Billy Mays, and Ed McMahon all occurred in June, and generated tons of chatter.  A month-over-month bump of 19 percent seems a little small considering the circumstances.

Then there's the report indicating that Twitter received $48 million in free media coverage during late May and most of June to take into account.  And really, a 19 percent month-over-month bump isn't especially huge, regardless.

Let the arguments over Twitter's popularity continue, then.