As 2011 comes to an end, we’re happy to share with you some of the insights that we’ve seen from this year’s search trends.

While Google recently release its Zeitgeist 2011, it is important to understand that the information in below is different in nature, based on search performed within various websites. While data from search engines tends to be very general, typically serving as a search gateway, the search terms we’re seeing are often more niche-specific and provide accurate and straight to the point insight if you’re focusing on a niche or vertical.

News

Top news searches for 2011 varied across many sub-verticals. It is interesting to see that the #1 search topic was Facebook. From our perspective, as a web-oriented company, it is interesting to see that something, which was considered extremely geeky to deal with only a few years ago, makes top news now. This simply reveals how the web touches everyone’s lives and has become responsible for major economic shifts.

Vybz Kartel makes news escaping from prison. By the speed this expression has trended onto various websites, Vybz should consider making these escapes more often as the PR effect was amazing.

Iran makes big news as usual. Every good story needs an evil main character.

Sex sells – We all know that. It is interesting to see Kim Kardashian on this list, while she also appears in our Adult search top 10 queries (we’ll spare you the rest of the queries in this list, believe us – you don’t want to know.)

Music

From the top music search terms, we get a very good picture of who really dominates this vertical. While all the buzz is around Lady Gaga and Adel, it is actually Drake, Beyonce and Eminem ruling the top 3 places (a hint to which music genre and artists really engage listeners and drive them to investigate lyrics and videos further.)

Entertainment

Vampires, serial killers and paranormal activities keep their dominance in the entertainment vertical, taking almost every slot in entertainment’s top 10.

We find entry 8 – “11-11-11″ to be interesting. It’s in-line with this year’s mystery theme, yet it got in the top 10 list despite a 4.1 rate on IMDB.

Adult

Belive us, you don’t want to know what the top 3 are, but as promised, we have Kim in 4th place.

Ad spending around the globe is big business, and it’s getting even bigger.

Web advertising is growing three times faster than the market as a whole, according to ZenithOptimedia, and Emerging markets are no exception. Driven by rapid progress and greater web usage in regions such as Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia, global companies are increasingly targeting online consumers in countries like China, Russia, Brazil and India.

At Widdit we are also benefiting from this phenomenon as we see very positive affects in the usage of our services because of improved financial performance from these regions, combined with a greater number of users who are educated in search and value search supporting services across non-english speaking markets.

Analysts confirm that the increasing revenue growth in international search business is gained from emerging markets. While these markets are discovering the growing profitability in search advertising, there is great potential for companies who recognize this trend and build their business model around search.

According to eMarketer, the overall advertising market in North America is expected to grow about 2% each year through 2014, when it will reach $190.6 billion overall. Asia-Pacific, on the other hand, will see growth rates between 4% to 8% each year until 2014, when the total media ad market reaches $173 billion in the region.

Although Western markets are further developed in direct online transactions (mainly because conversion rates are easier to track while Emerging markets still lack a standardized trusted form of payment and clearly defined ICT regulations), such mature markets are enjoying much less vigorous growth as advertising spend and cpc rates increase across Emerging markets enabling a massive explosion of opportunities.

The Interactive Advertising Bureaus of Australia, New Zealand and Singapore also recently released their latest data for total advertising spending, with the Web leading the way. Online advertising in Australia was up 17% in the first quarter of 2010 year-over-year, propelled by a surge in search and directory spending.

The millions of users who are actively using search related tools and applications today are mostly from the U.S., U.K. and other leading economies. As mature markets become saturated there are likely to be a lot more new opportunities within Emerging regions. At Widdit we believe investing in these markets is a smart move. Statistics prove that their profitability is steadily growing.