Lady GaGa On Top - Of Facebook Top Searches

Facebook released a list of the most frequently used words and terms appearing in users' status updates throughout 2009. The list includes everything from celebrities (living and dead), to games and applications, even healthcare concerns. 

The list was made up of multiple categories such as Facebook Applications, Swine Flu, Sports, Movies, and Celebrity Deaths. Of those living celebrities, one even had her own separate category since, as InformationWeek explains, she has gained "Madonna-like popularity and appeal."  Who else but Lady GaGa?

"She was virtually unmentioned until November of 2008 and spiked in mentions of her name in September 2009," wrote Facebook data scientist Lars Backstrom, in a blog post.

Anyone could have guessed that Farmville and Farm Town were the top mentions for Facebook Applications. "You could almost say that 2009 was the year of the farm in status updates," Backstrom said.

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H1N1 virus, also known as the Swine Flu, was another topic that got a large amount of attention from users of the social networking site. Backstrom explained the main reason is that the virus "was probably the biggest ongoing news story of the year."

And who could forget the year we have had with celebrity deaths! Of course Facebook was one of the main ways in which people found out about the death of Michael Jackson. Facebook updates, Twitter updates, and every other social networking site, along with people just trying to read a full news story on his death, almost took out the internet completely. 

"Mentions of his name were 10,000 times higher on June 25, the day he died, than on the previous day, and no other unexpected news even can compare to the burst we saw on that day," Backstom noted.

Other Celebrity Deaths users updated about most were Dirty Dancing heart-throb Patrick Swayze and OxyClean pitchman Billy Mays.

While most of this information is not surprising, the actual numbers behind the trends are more than just "good to know." The ability to see and then quantify these kinds of social trends, while they are still developing, as well as monitor user reactionary thoughts and opinions, means it could be an invaluable tool for marketers. Additionally, the tool has also become an overwhelming source of controversy. 

Over the past several months, Facebook and its users have been going back and forth regarding the amount of information provided by users on their accounts should be accessible by third parties, as well as what kind of conditions should be required for access to the users' profiles.

At the beginning of December, privacy settings for members' accounts were changed, and some members feel the new settings make inadvertent exposure of their information far too easy. Thus, privacy advocates from the Electronic Privacy Information Center have filed a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission regarding the change.