A mobile phone that never materialized and the late co-founder of Apple found their way onto the list of the 10 most popular searches at Google this past year.

Revealing the hottest and fastest-growing search terms for 2011, Google found a number of tech-related items in the Top 10.

The company's own Google+ social network took second place, just behind American pop singer Rebecca Black. Battlefield 3, a new first-person combat game from the folks at Electronic Arts, was the fifth most popular search term.

Perhaps most interesting was the item in sixth place--namely the iPhone 5, a device that many Apple watchers were eagerly anticipating but which never actually appeared. Apple also rounded off the list with its late co-founder Steve Jobs as the ninth most-searched term, followed by the iPad 2 in tenth place.

To compile the list, Google scoured through billions of searches run over the year. Dubbing the list "Zeitgeist 2011," the search giant said it sees the different items as as a reflection of the spirit of 2011.

Moving beyond the Top 10, the Zeitgeist drilled down to the most popular terms across various categories, including entertainment, sports, people, and consumer electronics.

The consumer electronics spot clearly revealed the hot interest in mobile devices, unveiling a variety of tablets and smartphones as the most searched items. No. 1 on the list was Amazon's new Kindle Fire, with the iPhone 4S in second.

T-Mobile's Sidekick 4G took third place, followed by the HP Touchpad in fourth. SPB Shell 3D, a special user interface for Android devices, was in fifth place.

The iPad 2 was next on the list, followed by the HTC Sensation, the Samsung Nexus Prime, Sony NPG (Next Generation Portable), and the iPad 3.

To further illustrate the Zeitgeist for 2011, Google created the video below that it said provides an "overview of the search terms that captivated the world this year."

Source - [ news.cnet.com ]