iPhone 5, Steve Jobs and iPad 2 among Google's top searches of 2011

Apple is a common topic in the proliferation of 2011 retrospectives that are inevitably being published this month. The latest comes from Google's Zeitgeist 2011, a look at the 2011's fastest-rising worldwide searches. The iPhone 5 (AKA the iPhone 4S), Steve Jobs, and the iPad 2 all jumped up in Google queries at some point during the year to capture the attention of the world.

For the iPhone 5, speculation was rampant throughout the year and rose 1,658 percent between 2010 and 2011. There was a huge jump in interest the week of October 2 - 8, 2011, the week that Apple finally announced the iPhone 4S (Google mistakenly shows the week before as the peak time on their summary page).

Interest in late Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs grew an astounding 982 percent between 2010 and 2011, giving him the posthumous honor of being 9th fastest rising search of the year. As you'd expect, Google searches for Steve Jobs peaked the week of October 2, 2011, the week of his death.

The number 10 spot on the Zeitgeist 2011 list was filled by the iPad 2. Searches for the device reached a frenzy the week of February 27, 2011, two weeks before sales of the tablet began. Searches for the device rose 939 percent from 2010 to 2011, and it will be fascinating to see if the iPad 3 takes the honors for 2012.