What Austin Googled in 2012

Google has released its Zeitgeist 2012, cataloging what the world was searching for online this year.

And sure, while Austin has its share of Whitney Houston and Gangnam Style fans (Houston and the song from Korean rapper PSY being the world’s top two search terms), Austin residents made plenty of queries closer to home.

Without further ado, here’s the top 10 most searched terms in Austin in 2012:

1. Alamo Drafthouse Austin
2. Violet Crown Cinema
3. Austin City Limits Music Festival
4. Formula 1 US Grand Prix
5. SXSW
6. Longhorn Steakhouse
7. Presidential Polls
8. Austin Craigslist
9. San Antonio Spurs
10. Randolph Brooks Federal Credit Union

Creating that list was a little more complicated than just naming top search terms though. "Google used data from multiple sources, including the public tool, Google Trends and internal data tools," according to Alison Langdon from The Monument Group, which announced the Austin rankings. "They filtered out spam and repeat queries to build lists that best reflect the spirit of 2012."

Austin was one of 23 major U.S. cities Google released results for – although counterintuitively, those results aren't available online.

Last year, Google acquired restaurant survey and review company Zagat. To that end, Google has also released a separate list of the most searched Austin restaurants on Zagat. And the top 10 are:

1. Congress Restaurant
2. Salt Lick Restaurant
3. Uchi Restaurant
4. Vespaio Restaurant
5. Roaring Fork Restaurant
6. Uchiko Restaurant
7. Eddie V's Prime Seafood Restaurant
8. Z'Tejas Restaurant
9. Parkside Restaurant
10. Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar