Apple’s recently launched (in SA) iPhone4, has received greater internet search interest than teen pop sensation, Justin Bieber, reveals Google Zeitgeist. SA’s fascination with the latest gadgets is clearly evident, with iPhone4 topping the list of fastest rising searches from the last seven days, while Bieber claims the number five spot. The YouTube star got SA teenyboppers in a flat spin last week, when he breezed into the country for some ‘rest and relaxation’.

Heritage Day and the ANC are placed second and third respectively, followed by Kulula. Idols, a perennial favourite for the rankings, still makes an appearance at number seven, as the country counts down to the final winner being announced in a few weeks time.

Fastest rising web searches, South Africa, last 7 days:

Lady Gaga’s ‘scandalous’ meat dress, which she wore at the MTV Music Awards, has stolen first place on the list of fastest rising image searches in September, while Bees Roux remains the top newsmaker for the month. He is followed by ANC Youth League Leader, Julius Malema; the Blue Bulls; President Zuma; the Currie Cup; and controversial Bok coach, Pieter de Villiers.

Fastest rising image searches, South Africa, last 30 days

Fastest rising news searches, South Africa, last 30 days

Anyone can use Insights for search to come up with their own rankings by visiting http://google.com/insights/search/ and Trends http://www.google.com/trends

Zeitgeist Explained

Google reveals the internet “Zeitgeist” (German for “the spirit of the times”) through an exploration of the billions of search queries we receive each year. We also have several tools that give insight into global, regional, past and present search trends. Google Zeitgeist tools can never be used to identify individual users because we rely on anonymized, aggregated counts of how often certain search queries occur over time. These tools are available year-round for you to play with, explore, and learn from.  You can create your own lists and rankings on www.google.com/zeitgeist

Distimo just released their latest report for August, which details sales of all the current mobile application stores. Here are the noteworthy results so far:

While the average price of all applications is only 16% higher in the Apple App Store for iPad than in the Apple App Store for iPhone, the average price of the 100 most popular applications is nearly three times as high in the Apple App Store for iPad.

Clearly people are willing to way for good quality apps on the iPad. The problem with the iPad appstore presently is that many of the apps are just supersized iPhone applications made to fit the bigger resolution, without really adding any functionality. But slowly this is changing – just look at the newly released Twitter for iPad, which makes good use of the large touch panel and gives as an idea of where iPad apps are moving towards in terms of user interaction and design conventions:

In the Apple App Store for iPad, BlackBerry App World and Windows Marketplace for Mobile, the respective companies that run each application store, (Apple, Research In Motion and Microsoft) are the top publishers in their own store with only a limited number of applications. Clickgamer.com and Offscreen publish many popular games in the Apple App Store for iPhone and Nokia Ovi Store making them the top publishers in these stores.

People expect higher quality apps from the vendors who design the software, and in most cases this does show. Apple‘s Pages is a prime example of this – while not super functional, the interface and ease of use is way ahead of any other similiar offering from other vendors.

Average prices of the different appstores also bring up some interesting results:

Google Marketplace has the lowest pricing, and the store size is rapidly increasing. Also worth noting is Blackberry‘s cost which is still quite high, but this can be ascribed to their minimum price being $2.99, but this is being changed with the latest release of App World. So expect those prices to drop soon enough. The iPad is still being seen by developers as a higher income “niche” product, so the current prices still reflect this.

Here is some other results from the different appstores:

If you want to read the Distimo report more in-depth, you can find it here.

Google‘s rich history of acquisitions is put together in a very good format here by the guys at Scores.org. Where this infographic is handy is that they quickly identify whether a purchase was a way to enhance existing Google revenue streams, or to get rid of competitors. What I want to know is how many of these acquisitions have been enhanced since falling inside Google’s empire, and how many have died since…

Source: Scores.org

So you want to know where that son of a deposed Nigerian king is really emailling you from? Google made this handy little tool to track where the most Spam is sent from everyday. This is actually tracking in real time as well…

This Postini tool works by scanning identified malicious IPs accross the world - Postini is Google’s messaging encryption and security suite for Google Apps. It seems SA is very busy spamming as well – hey guys, we have too little bandwidth already, cut us some slack, OK?

Via: MBA Online

As we wait in anticipation for Sunday’s final match, Google examines the most prominent search trends over the last 30 days.

The vuvuzela has certainly been one of the biggest talking points of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, and has since crossed beyond our borders into other countries. Even celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio have been spotted with their lips around this plastic phenomenon. Google Zeitgeist – which provides insight into global, national, past and present search trends – has revealed that the United Kingdom is the number one country searching for places to buy the vuvuzela, followed by the United States and the United Arab Emirates.

Top 10 countries interested in buying vuvuzelas:

Meanwhile, Uruguayans have been the most interested in Zakumi (the Official 2010 FIFA World Cup Mascot™), with the majority of searches taking place just before Bafana Bafana’s 3-0 clash against Uruguay. Besides South Africa, it seems that Peru, Argentina and Venezuela have also taken quite a liking to this cuddly, green haired leopard, who celebrated his 16^th birthday during the World Cup.

When French coach, Raymond Domenech, snubbed a handshake from South African coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira, searches combining their names rose; particularly in France on the day of the momentous match in Bloemfontein. Luis Suarez’s infamous hand ball against Ghana during the quarter finals also sparked a series of searches, with the United States being the most eager to research the controversial play that inevitably dashed Africa’s hopes in the tournament.

Interestingly, Bangladesh leads the pack in trying to find out more about ‘Waka Waka’ (the official 2010 FIFA World Cup™ anthem), with Paraguay and Mauritius coming in second and third respectively. K’naan’s ‘Wavin’ Flag’, although slightly less popular, appears to have resonated with citizens in Hungry, Argentina and India.

Highest regional interest for Shakira’s ‘Waka Waka’ song in the last 30 days:

Anyone can use Insights for search to come up with their own rankings by visiting http://google.com/insights/search/ and Trends http://www.google.com/trends

Zeitgeist Explained

Google reveals the internet “Zeitgeist” (German for “the spirit of the times”) through an exploration of the billions of search queries we receive each year. We also have several tools that give insight into global, regional, past and present search trends. Google Zeitgeist tools can never be used to identify individual users because we rely on anonymized, aggregated counts of how often certain search queries occur over time. These tools are available year-round for you to play with, explore, and learn from.  You can create your own lists and rankings on www.google.com/zeitgeist

According to an article published by The Wall Street Journal this week, a Google representative speaking at a publishing-industry event in New York has confirmed that the company plans to begin selling digital books in late June or July.

The new service, announced last year at the Frankfurt Book Fair, will be called Google Editions, and will be entirely web-based – in other words, users will be able to download and read books using only their web browser. No details have been provided yet on how this interface will compare to other available e-readers.

Users will be able to buy books in two ways:
1.    Through Google’s book search service
2.    Directly from the websites of book retailers

According to The Wall Street Journal, no decision has yet been reached on whether publishers will set the retail price for digital books or whether prices will be determined by Google.

Well this is interesting – Google bought the guys responsible for BumpTop, the very slick 3 dimensional desktop application. I have always been a fan of the idea of Bumptop, but I hated running another layer over my background. The few times that I did test it I was always impressed, and it ran well, especially its recent Mac OSX version. It was however limited in its free form, and hopefully Google fixes this. Just like Picasa was little known before Google bought it, maybe they will set Bumptop free for all OS’s, with quick links to all Google services. I can imagine that being very handy.

Please Google, dont keep Bumptop only for your upcoming ChromeOS (or Android).

Set it free.