2008 Year-End Google Zeitgeist
http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2008/

As the year comes to a close, it’s time to look at the big events, memorable moments and emerging trends that captivated us in 2008. As it happens, studying the aggregation of the billions of search queries that people type into the Google search box gives us a glimpse into the zeitgeist — the spirit of the times. Google has compiled some of the highlights from Google searches around the globe and hope you enjoy looking back as much as they do. This has been added to the tools section of Research Resources Subject Tracer™ Information Blog.