Weekly Yahoo! Search Trends – February 4, 2011
Yahoo! aggregates the billions of searches performed across Yahoo! properties to give the pulse on what people are thinking and talking about. Searches represent the people, an instant poll every moment of the day, looking into the fleeting moods and entrenched attitudes of Internet users across the world. Each week Yahoo! Web Life Editor Heather Cabot explores these trends on local and national broadcast. Turmoil in Egypt, a dangerous snowstorm and the Super Bowl has people rushing online for the latest.

Egypt

This week snowbound Americans followed the  news in the middle east closely.  The anti-government protests in Egypt ratcheted up searches for President Hosni Mubarak and all of the players and events the led the embattled leader to announce he would step down. Searches for President Mubarak spiked over 2,900%.

Snowmageddon
The effects of “snowmageddon” are still rippling across much of the US and of course the web.  The colossal snowstorm that stretched 2,000 miles from Dallas to Chicago to Boston sent people online to find out how the cold, icy weather would affect travel, schools, heating bills and even leaky faucets. Given the brutal winter so far, preps for the monster storm started early this week.  We saw spikes in searches on Yahoo!  for snow rakes and heavy duty snow blowers spike about 600% And while they waited for the weather to calm, many folks made the best of it by staying home and cooking up some comfort food.  In Detroit, a number of folks wanted to recipes for “no-bake peanut butter cookies.”  In Kansas City, Search queries “for how to make chocolate frosting” jumped.

Super Bowl
All the snow is not dampening the excitement about Super Bowl Sunday, although some people lucky enough to get tickets for the big game worried about getting to Dallas.  Searches for Dallas weather forecast are up 839%. If search queries could determine who will triumph this weekend, the smart money would be on the Pittsburgh Steelers.  All season, the Steelers dominated Green Bay --  at least on Yahoo! --  with 21% more searches.  And when it comes to quarterbacks. Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger bests the Packers’ Aaron Rodgers by 45%.  As for the festivities, people seem to be  revving up for a super bowl feast that might even include a few lighter dishes.  Searches for “healthy superbowl dips” surged 6,800% this week.  Still topping the list for most popular party dips – buffalo chicken, spinach, artichoke, taco and seven layer.

Check out the video for more trends spiking this week.