Google is the world's favourite seach engine, and was used for 55 billion info searches in 2003. Britney Spears tops the most popular global queries in Google's end-of-year zeitgeist trend spotting report. Harry Potter is second, David Beckham fifth; Lord of the Rings eighth. And, there, at 10th is the Tour de France. Cycling is the only sport to make it into the top ten....

Tour de France is a Google go-getter

"The 2003 Year-End Zeitgeist offers a unique perspective on the year’s major events and hottest trends," says a statement from Google, "[and] enables you to look at the past year through the collective eyes of the world on the Internet."

Zeitgeist, according to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, is a German word meaning "the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era."

Here are the top ten:

1. britney spears

2. harry potter

3. matrix

4. shakira

5. david beckham

6. 50 cent

7. iraq

8. lord of the rings

9. kobe bryant

10. tour de france

Hopefully, the Tour de France being searched for is the world’s biggest annual sporting event, not the URL-hijacking porn site, see link below…

http://www.google.com/…/zeitgeist.html

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