If you want to know what the wired globe cared about or thought about, or more exactly, searched for using Google in the past year, then check out Google’s 2002 Year-End Zeitgeist wrap-up.
Naturally they filter out pr0n searches which would swamp everything else. (“You’ve got the most popular non-porn website on the Internet,” says Carl. “That makes you ten trillionth overall,” says Lenny.)
Most interesting to me are the Top 20 Declining Queries 2002 and the geographical spread of the Las Ketchup meme. The month-by-month highlights timeline is also pretty cool.