Google says social networking is Ireland's favourite pastime and the top county looking for love is Louth.
French president Nicholas Sarkozy, Munster Rugby and the social networking website Bebo may seem an unlikely threesome, but they are ranked among the most popular searches in the 2008 year-end Google Zeitgeist Ireland study.
Google Ireland and UK managing director Ronan Harris reveals Irish people are most interested in, or curious about, social networking, politics and current affairs.
Worldwide, Republican Party candidate for Vice President of the United States Sarah Palin became the fastest rising search in 2008, but in Ireland,
Bebo was the most popular search on Google, while Facebook was the fastest rising.
This confirms social networking is Ireland’s favourite pastime. John Kennedy of Silicon Republic reports the fifth fastest growing website in Ireland by Google search is the Polish social site Naza Klasa (Our Class).
For the first time ever rugby surpassed soccer related queries on Google. Cyberspace did not escape the recession however with,
A 50% drop in the number of people seeking out property and a 75% fall in those looking for new cars.
On a brighter note, the word love also featured in Irish Google searches, with internet users in County Louth seeking it out more than anywhere else in the country.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 10 December 2008. The reporter is Sharon Tobin.
