The iPod and iTunes were both on Google's lists of popular searches for 2005. The lists are a part of Google's annual Zeitgeist report, which analyzes the trends in search queries for the past year.

iTunes and iPod in the Top Ten
iTunes came in at number six in the Top Gainers list, indicating a marked increase in awareness for iTunes. It was beat out, in order, by Myspace, Ares, Baidu, wikipedia, and orkut. It ranked above Sky News, followed by World of Warcraft, Green Day, and Leonardo da Vinci, rounding out the top ten.

The top ten Froogle searches, product searches using Google's Froogle site, were dominated by the iPod. The number one Froogle search for the year was ipod, ipod mini ranked fourth, ipod shuffle was number eight, and ipod nano took tenth place. The nano's ranking shows it's amazing popularity, considering it has been available since September, giving it less than half the year for searches. The other products on the list have been available for all of 2005.

No Apple product made the top ten news searches for 2005, which is probably for the best, considering that they would have been company with the likes of Janet Jackson, Hurricane Katrina, and tsunami, all top three searches. For the morbidly curious, Janet Jackson came in at number one.

iPod Drives Search Trends
Google also tracked how digital music related searches ranked throughout the year, and caught some interesting trends. iPod related searches spiked dramatically with the introduction of the iPod nano, and stayed substantially higher than they were before its release. The release of the video compatible iPod saw another spike, nearly as high as the nano's, then a drop back down to post-nano levels.

Digital Music Search Trends - 2005

Podcasting showed up on Google's radar in January, and stayed consistently low until mid year, when it shot up nearly to the level of pre-nano searches. Interestingly, the release of video capable iPods saw only a mild increase in podcast related searches.

The search term "mp3" was higher than iPod and podcasting, and remained fairly consistent, until the post-nano days, when it began a steady upward climb.

Putting It All Together
Google's statistics show a very interesting trend in our culture today: Entertainment-driven technology is a bigger part of our daily lives, and that's not likely to change any time soon. Consumers want to enjoy music, videos, and other programming on their terms, and the iPod is a big part of that.