Online exposure
We're not sure what this says about the world, but the Google search term that experienced the greatest increase in 2010 was ‘chatroulette', according to Google Zeitgeist 2010.
In case you're not familiar with it, Chatroulette is a website that places you into conversations, randomly, with other people logged on to the site. Nothing amazingly new there - online chatrooms have been going for years - but the difference with Chatroulette is that it's webcam based.
Now we have to confess, we haven't dared try it out yet for a couple of reasons. Firstly our misanthropy is sufficiently advanced that we're generally more concerned with avoiding strangers than courting them. But more importantly, Chatroulette is widely regarded as a hub for exhibitionists and general weirdos.
That's not too surprising. One of the many democratising effects of the Internet is that is gives everyone a global presence, and a platform to express themselves. While many take that opportunity to share their opinions and experiences, for your average exhibitionist random video chat represents a very efficient way to literally expose themselves to as many people as possible. Apparently you've got a fairly healthy chance of encountering one of these people if you use the service (shudder).
A close second, globally, was the Apple iPad. The two could be related from a voyeuristic point of view, but the potential that will be created when the next generation iPad presumably gets a front-facing camera doesn't bear contemplating.
In the UK Chatroulette was also the fastest rising search, but second was ‘formspring' - a socially-optimised question-and-answer service. Clearly we're embracing the social networking thing whole-heartedly over here, as is further proven by ‘facebook' being the most popular search of the year in the UK.
Here's a screenshot of all the lists Google published on Zeitgeist 2010 for the UK.
