If you like to scour the internet for the latest news, the hottest tech gadgets, or the most recent celebrity scandal, then you may have been party to creating some of the most popular Google searches of the past year. And since Google tracks everything and compiles lists of data pertaining to search terms (including popularity, trends over time, regional information, and so on), it should come as no surprise that they publish an annual list to let people know just what they’ve been searching for en masse. As of December 15^th, Google posted their most recent Zeitgeist (their “spirit of the times” list) so everyone can see just what captured the collective interest of searchers across the globe and you may be surprised at some of the top picks.

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Of the top 10 most searched terms, three related to celebrities (and surprisingly, there was nary a Kardashian amongst them), three were focused on technology, three on Apple-related topics, two surrounded the death of well-known persons, and one centered on a natural disaster, one a court case, and one a video game. Yes, that totals fourteen, but suffice it to say there was some overlap.

So, who came out at number one? You may be surprised (or maybe you won’t, since a lot of people apparently did the searching) to learn that it was web phenom Rebecca Black, the 13-year-old who stole the show with her own music video and shameless self-promotion. Incredibly, the YouTube video for the teen’s ubiquitous song “Friday” received nearly 14 million hits, probably because it became an instant web sensation as something of a joke.

After being subject to ridicule, parody, and speculation about whether or not her parents paid a million dollars to make the video (or did she earn a million dollars off it? No one seems sure…), she parlayed her ill-gotten internet fame into a bonafide following with a cameo in Katy Perry’s “Last Friday Night” and a shout-out from Lady Gaga, who called the girl a genius. But whether you hated her video, laughed at her auto-tuned song, or felt bad that she was the victim of cyber bullying, you searched her enough to put her at number one on Google’s Zeitgeist for 2011.

But what else caught the public fancy this year? Unsurprisingly, Google made their own list at number two with would-be Facebook rival Google+, followed by daredevil Ryan Dunn (who died in an alcohol-related car crash) and Casey Anthony (acquitted in the infamous murder of daughter Caylee). Coming in at number five was first-person shooter Battlefield 3 (no new Halo spinoffs to contend with this year), with the iPhone 5 (yet to be released) close on its heels. Then came Adele, the UK songstress that hit number one with her album 21 before busting her pipes. At number eight was the earthquake in Japan, followed by Steve Jobs, and finally the iPad 2.

So those are the people, things, and events that the Googling public found most interesting in 2011. And whether you used prepaid phone cards to call your friends and tell them about a hilarious video, a celebrity death, or the latest technology, or you simply tweeted your finds, you are the one that made these searches popular.

Editor’s Note

Thanks to Evan Fischer for this quest post. He is a freelance writer and part-time student at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California.