Smackdown: iPad versus Justin Bieber

It's on!

Who would win in a fight, Justin Bieber or the iPad?  As it turns out, in 2010, the iPad put the smack down on Justin Bieber, despite having no arms.  This is according to Google’s list of fastest rising searches for 2010.  I don’t find it that surprising.  Bieber is pretty hot with the under-13 crowd, but even most six-year-olds are ashamed to admit they’re Justin Bieber fans.

Google released the list on Thursday in accordance with the company’s yearly tradition of providing a look back at the top searches for the year.  This year had some interesting results: seven of the top ten searches were consumer internet queries.  The top spot was taken by none other than creepy online molestation forum, Chatroulette, which led in searches for “chat.”  Albania showed the most interest in Chatroulette, followed by Tunisia, France, Turkey, Norway, Belium, Italy, the Netherlands, Algeria, and the United Kingdom.

Apple’s iPad took second place among searches for “Apple,” “iPad apps,” “iPad Apple,” “iPhone,” and “iPod.”  Web users from Hong Kong demonstrated the most interest, followed by Singapore, Cambodia, the United States, Japan, Angola (really?), Australia, the Netherlands, Canada, and Iraq.

Justin Bieber came in third, and just for fun, I checked out which country took the top spot in Justin Bieber searches.  I never would’ve guessed in a million years: Haiti, followed by Indonesia and Myanmar.  The U.S. wasn’t even in the top 10.  But enough of that…

Gaming site Friv took the number five slot, followed by Myxer, a site that provides free ringtone downloads.

Twitter took the number eight spot (following Katy Perry at number seven), with most searches come from Venezuela, Brazil, and Mexico.  Twitter has a huge Latin American following, and a number of world leaders in Central and South America have Twitter accounts and even follow one another.  (French President Nikolas Sarkozy, by comparison, follows no one.  He flies solo.)  Hugo Chavez, as it turns out, is a prolific tweeter, known for responding to tweets from his followers.  “Twitter en español” was among the top rising searches this year, along with “Twitter Justin Bieber.”  Go figure.

Gaming site Gamezer came in at number nine in the ranking, with most of its search interest coming from Palestinian territory.  And rounding out the list at number ten was Facebook, with most searches coming from Turkey, Venezuela, and Tunisia.  Top rising searches include “Facebook en español” and “Facebook español.”

Image sources: doggybuzz.fr, iphon.fr