Deceased singer Fong Fei Fei (鳳飛飛), NBA player Jeremy Lin (林書豪) and Apple Inc’s iPhone 5 are among the most popular Internet search keywords in Taiwanese searches this year, Yahoo-Kimo Inc (雅虎奇摩) said.
Based on the search keywords that have the highest growth rate in Taiwanese searches within one week, the five most popular searches among Taiwanese Internet users concern: Fong’s death, Taiwanese-Japanese actress Makiyo’s cab driver assault, the “Linsanity” phenomenon, first lady Chow Mei-ching’s (周美青) comment to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) “you are so weird” (奇怪耶你); and Taekwondo athlete Tseng Li-cheng’s (曾櫟騁) winning a bronze medal at the London Olympics, Yahoo-Kimo said on Wednesday.
Following the top five searches, the iPhone 5, South Korean singer Psy’s Gangnam-style dance, online video game Diablo 3 and Taiwanese socialite Justin Lee’s (李宗瑞) sex scandal also drew the attention of netizens, the Internet portal said.
Yahoo-Kimo said other popular searches this year included “game,” “visa-free travel,” “houses,” “discounts,” “free of charge,” “incentives” and “entertainment.”
“The list shows that netizens carefully follow the latest news related to social issues as well as global events.
Through the popularity of search terms, advertisers can better understand what Internet users care about the most,” Eponine Chen (陳婉怡), senior director of Yahoo-Kimo’s search marketing unit, said in a statement.
Yahoo-Kimo said the average number of searches involving terms such as “free,” “cheap,” “discount” and bargains” increased 180 times from a year ago, while that of “game” and “video games”-related searches increased nearly 100 percent, topping the list for a second consecutive year.
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