The second India Zeitgeist report (globally the report is in its 9th year), which offers a perspective on the year’s major events and hottest trends based on searches conducted by users in India, declared that Bollywood actor Katrina Kaif is the most-searched person in India; that ‘recession’ does not figure among the top search for ‘economic terms’; that ‘How to reduce weight’ is a major concern among Indians; and that Goa is everyone’s favourite destination.
 
The Sixth Pay Commission was also a popular search word. Beijing Olympics and IPL made it to the fastest rising search term in 2008. Genelia D’souza of ‘Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na’ fame was 7th on the list.

Mahatma Gandhi remained the most popular politician followed by Raj Thackeray, whose claim to fame is regrettably the anti-north Indian rhetoric but interestingly, Sarah Palin, in third place was more ‘searched’ than Obama at the fifth spot. Sania Mirza topped the sportstars, leaving behind Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni. The list includes Christiano Ronaldo, Roger Federer and John Cena. Indian citizens appeared more patriotic than romantic, at least in their browsing preference, with Independence Day emerging the most popular 'days' ahead of Valentine's Day.
 
Vinay Goel, Head of Products, Google India said, “The year-end provides an opportunity to take stock of our lives and those of others, look at what made news through the year and browsing the Google India Zeitgeist lists is especially interesting as these provide a refreshing perspective on the year gone by and an insight into emerging trends. Different people find different things to do on the web, so these lists are a good representation of the unique ways in which Indian users mine the Internet. Given the popularity of mobiles, this year we also looked at what people searched for while on the move through their mobile phones.”