Picture This: 2008 Olympics dominate online searches

Ian Lamont — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:17:00 -0700

This morning on Google Hot Trends, there is one theme that is dominating the thoughts of millions of Web searchers: Where can I find information and streams relating to the 2008 Beijing Olympics?

Of the 100 up-and-coming search terms, 61 are related to the Olympics ("olympics opening ceremony live," "olympics online," "beijing time", etc.). Many of these searches specifically reference broadcasters ("cctv olympics", "nbc olympic") as well as illicit streaming tools that carry Chinese or other international video coverage. In a rare occurence on Google Hot Trends, about 10% of all of the Hot Trends terms are Chinese characters -- look for "奥运", which means "Olympics" in Chinese:

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