Today, Google announced its annual Zeitgeist, a look at 2008 through the collective eyes of the world on the web.

The 2008 Year-End Zeitgeist offers a unique perspective on the year's major events and hottest trends based on global searches, as well as searches conducted in UAE and 35 additional countries.

In the UAE the fastest rising lists of 2008 proved to be quite interesting with the Beijing Olympics, Sheikh Nasser Bin Zayed and the Atlantis Hotel rising to the top ten searches for this year. We also looked at what the top 10 most popular search terms related to the economy and the fastest rising lists of vacations, famous people and restaurants residents of the UAE are searching for.

In addition to telling us what people are curious about in the UAE, Google Zeitgeist tools also offer insight into which topics were of interest across the globe. This year, for the first time since its inception in 2001, we have taken a deep dive into global search information across more than 30 countries and published our findings all in one place: the Google Zeitgeist 2008 website.

This year's global fastest rising searches show interest in global events such as the Beijing Olympics and Euro 2008, with a number of American politicians and international social networking sites showing up as well:

Global Fastest Rising Queries:

1. sarah palin
2. beijing 2008
3. facebook login
4. tuenti
5. heath ledger
6. obama
7. nasza klasa
8. wer kennt wen
9. euro 2008
10. jonas brothers

To see more information about Google Zeitgeist across the globe and the full UAE lists take a look at the site: google.com/zeitgeist2008

UAE Fastest Rising Queries

1. Beijing — 2008
2. Nasser Bin Zayed
3. Facebook
4. Bahrain Air
5. Obama
6. Hannah Montana
7. YouTube
8. Emirates ID
9. Atlantis Dubai
10. Heath Ledger

UAE Most Popular Queries

1. Dubai
2. UAE
3. The Emirates
4. Toys
5. Dubai
6. images
7. News
8. songs
9. youtube
10. games

UAE’s Top 10 Most Popular Search Terms on the Economy

1. uae economy
2. indian economy
3. Economy of Kuwait
4. World Economy
5. Inflation
6. Recession
7. oil
8. Economy of Japan
9. IMF
10. gold price

UAE’s Fastest Rising Vacation Queries

1. Hawaii
2. Fujairah
3. Maldives
4. Greece
5. Austria
6. Lebanon
7. Thailand
8. Turkey
9. Salalah
10. Italy

UAE Fastest Rising Queries of Famous Individuals

1. Nasser Bin Zayed
2. Obama
3. Heath Ledger
4. Miley Cyrus
5. Tamer Husni
6. Rashid Al Majid
7. Rihanna
8. Elissa
9. Al Afassi
10. Fairuz

UAE Fastest Rising Restaurant Queries

1. Al Mahara Restaurant
2. Frankies Restaurant
3. Caravan Restaurant
4. Automatic Restaurant
5. Kamat Restaurant
6. Teatro
7. Bice
8. Zuma
9. More Cafe
10. Beirut

Original Article: Medilyn Manibo - AME Info