The ABCs of Search – March 2009

More movement on the charts for March, including “orkut” replacing “Obama” for letter “o” and “netflix” moving into the “n” spot. Big Thinking readers know that Silver Beacon uses a generic computer running Windows and using Google.com without signing into an account. We note what Google recommends based on a single letter. We also have an ever-expanding portfolio of names. What makes the names especially fascinating is not the churn, but the folks who every month essentially define a name.

Canonical Tags Play A Role

We wondered about the results shown for each of our winners this month. The major search engines announced an initiative in February that would allow webmasters to specify their content as “the real page” so that www.test-site.com and test-site.com did not show as two separate pages. Although the initiative is relatively new, there were some massive drops among household names. Amazon is showing 100 million fewer results while IMDb, the movie site it owns, dropped 30 million of its own. Google itself shed 80 million pages from its own results while YouTube, now the second larges search entity in the US, stayed constant instead of continuing explosive growth. The Top Prompted Name For Each Letter:

  • amazon
  • best buy
  • craigslist
  • dictionary
  • ebay
  • facebook
  • google
  • hotmail
  • imdb
  • jcpenney
  • kohls
  • lowes
  • myspace
  • netflix
  • orkut
  • photobucket
  • quotes
  • runescape
  • sears
  • target
  • utube (sic)
  • verizon wireless
  • walmart
  • xbox360
  • youtube
  • zappos

The Top Names with Newcomer Names Bolded:

  • adam sandler
  • amy winehouse
  • alan jackson
  • alisa kleybanova
  • bob marley
  • brittany flickinger
  • brad pitt
  • beth moore
  • charles manson
  • colleen haskell
  • david archuletta (still winning the Cook-Archuletta American Idol battle)
  • diane lane
  • edward norton
  • emily blunt
  • frank sinatra
  • frances bean cobain
  • george bush
  • grace kelly
  • howard hughes
  • helen keller
  • isiah thomas
  • isabella rosellini
  • john travolta (tragedy knocks John McCain from list)
  • janet jackson
  • keth urban
  • kelly preston
  • louis armstrong
  • lisa rinna
  • matt damon
  • maria sharpova
  • nicholas sparks
  • nancy grace
  • oscar de la hoya
  • olivia wilde
  • paul mccartney (Newman’s death & Grammys vault Macca up)
  • patrica blajojevich (Heaton will be back when Gov’s wife is gone)
  • quincy jones
  • queen elizabeth
  • robert pattinson
  • roberta flack
  • steve fossett
  • sue grafton
  • tom cruise
  • tina fey
  • uri(jah) faber
  • ursula andress
  • vincent van gogh
  • victoria beckham
  • xavier rudd
  • xuan mai
  • yosef karduner
  • yolanda adams
  • zeke motta
  • zina garrisson
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