BitTorrent Zeitgeist: What People Searched For in 2011

Ernesto
December 27, 2011
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2011,
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Each and every day hundreds of millions of people scour their favorite BitTorrent search engines for content to download. But what are all these people looking for? Today we present the BitTorrent Zeitgeist 2011, a list of the 50 most searched for phrases and keywords on one of the most used public BitTorrent indexes during the past year.

2011 During December, all self-respecting search engines produce an overview of the most popular search terms of the past year.

These lists give insight into recent trends, and in 2011 Rebecca Black, Google Plus and Ryan Dunn were the fastest rising searches on Google.

But what about BitTorrent? With billions of searches every year it’s worth taking a look at the most-entered keywords on the dominant file-sharing network.

Unfortunately there is no central database of searches available, but Kat.ph, one of the top 5 torrent sites in terms of visitors, was kind enough to share the most popular search terms of 2011 with us. This list is based on millions of searches and gives an indication of what people were looking for on BitTorrent during the last 12 months.

Interestingly, the most searched for terms are not targeted at specific content, but used to discover files instead. “Ita,” “French” and “2011″ make up the top three and are used to find media in Italian, French and from 2011 respectively. The same is true for “DVDrip” and “720p” which are also listed in the top 10.

The first search term related to a specific title is “Thor” in 9th place, a title that also ended up in the most pirated movies list of this year. Movie related searches are clearly the most popular among users of the site as we also find “Harry Potter,” “Kung Fu Panda 2,” “Green Lantern” and “Transformers 3″ in the top 20.

Traditionally, TV-shows are also much sought after on BitTorrent as well, and that’s no different this year. “Glee” is the most popular TV-related search phrase in 13th place, followed by “True Blood,” “Game of Thrones,” “How I Met You Mother,” “Supernatural,” “House,” “Dexter” and “Breaking Bad” further down the list.

Besides movies and TV-shows the list is completed with a few unavoidable adult related searches, and the relatively rare software and game related keywords such as “PSP” (11) and “Windows 7″ (23). Music isn’t all that popular on public BitTorrent indexes, as we find the first and only artist related search is “Adele” in 44th place.

Below is the full list of the 50 most-entered search phrases on Kat.ph. This list will be different on other public BitTorrent sites, but we assume that the top searches will be popular on other indexes as well.
1. ita 2. french 3. 2011 4. ita dvd 5. xxx 6. dvdrip 7. italian 8. kickasstor 9. thor 10. 720p 11. psp 12. harry potter 13. glee 14. kung fu panda 2 15. green lantern 16. 1080p 17. wwe 18. movies 19. porn 20. transformers 3 21. cars 2 22. captain america 23. windows 7 34. true blood 25. fast and furious 5 26. hindi 27. sex 28. game of thrones 29. telugu 30. tamil 31. rango 32. super 8 33. playboy 34. x art 35. how i met your mother 36. pirates of the caribbean 37. x men 38. transformers 39. mac 40. rio 41. supernatural 42. kickassto 43. source code 44. adele 45. house 46. sucker punch 47. final destination 5 48. dexter 49. nero 50. breaking bad

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Mwhahahaha

And now for the real top 5 searches….

1. porn
2. sex
3. porny porny porn porn
4. sex porn sex porn
5. boobies!
- BooBooKittyPhuck
  
  6. Gangland Cream Pie 21:
  http://torrentfreak.com/while-drafting-sopa-us-house-harbors-bittorrent-pirates-111226/
  - liquidmonkey
    
    u mean to honestly tell us that boobs, tits or pussy were not in the top 10?!?!?
    - BooBooKittyPhuck
      
      7. Boobs
      8. Tits
      9. Pussy
      10. The aforementioned 9 in any order you choose… =P
      
      List fixed. =)
    - http://openid-provider.appspot.com/lordbyteme Lord Byte
      
      xxx is pretty much all of those combined….
- Wigwam85
  
  6. modern warfare 3
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SupposedlyAnonymousPeasant

Humans are fucking strange.
Look at that list…
Anonymous

Good example of how file sharing isn’t evil. Without Bittorrent, so much content would not be discovered, and the artists or moviemakers or whoever wouldn’t have sold their product anyway. Now that it gets pirated, and people find it on torrent sites, some people may actually buy it if they like it.
- Anonymous
  
  It’d be discovered with or without Bt.
  
  “Now that it gets pirated, and people find it on torrent sites, some people may actually buy it if they like it”
  
  Such a sad state of affairs when a tiny portion of people end up buying something.
  
  Is there a term for someone who doesn’t ever buy the media they liked when it was downloaded for free, just curious ?
  - Anonymous
    
    A pirate, obviously, but not all people downloading via bittorrent are pirates.
    - Anonymous
      
      It’d be interesting to base an experiment on that….just for a few years.
    - Z25
      
      I try recording software via bit torrent because the “trails versions” have most features disabled. I want the full felling of software that cost several hundred dollars before i put out the cash
  - Fredrika
    
    > “Is there a term for someone who doesn’t ever buy the media they liked..”
    
    This part of your sentence seems extremly confused, since it is never the content you buy, which is what you would like. You buy the physical copy, as in the goods, or indexing and streaming, as in the service, you never buy the content.
    
    > “..when it was downloaded for free, just curious ?”
    
    Someone who is very careful with his disposable assets and don’t spend money if it’s unnecessary, that would be an economical capitalist. The act of manufacturing what you want with your own physical property to save money, as people filesharing do, instead of buying goods or services from someone else, that’s capitalism.
    
    Do you have a problem with capitalism or the free market?
    - Anonymous
      
      It’s only confusing to you.
    - Fredrika
      
      > “It’s only confusing to you.”
      
      Actually, no, since i know very well of your continuously proven ignorance and compete refusal to stick to the facts and proper use of language. I know that you don’t care one bit about copyright or any facts, but instead advocate against both facts, copyright, capitalism and the free market.
      
      But for others who haven’t learned to identify your ignorant trolling yet, your illogical sentences could seem confusing.
    - Anonymous
      
      “Actually, no, since i know very well of your continuously proven ignorance and compete refusal to stick to the facts and proper use of language. I know that you don’t care one bit about copyright or any facts, but instead advocate against both facts, copyright, capitalism and the free market.”
      
      Whatever Freddie – on the other hand, I think your comments are usually very ignorant.
      
      One thing matters to me, another to you. To a large majority who create digital products in today’s marketplace, you come off like a ignorant rambling pirate.
      
      “But for others who haven’t learned to identify your ignorant trolling yet, your illogical sentences could seem confusing”
      
      Of course, because it was that hard to understand….you do make me laugh Freddie ;)
    - Fredrika
      
      > “Whatever Freddie..”
      
      Why can’t you get my signature correct? Restraining from resorting to ad hominem fallacies, such as personal attacks, isn’t your game either?
      
      > “..on the other hand, I think your comments are usually very ignorant.”
      
      Well, that would be because you deny or don’t understand the facts? But if you could manage to restrain from coming up with empty meaningless accusations as you just did, and instead point out what you refer to, then i would happily explain it to you, with references is needed, because every single claim i put forward is indeed factual exactly as it is written, and that can easily be verified in relevant legislation, a dictionary, a physics book, or a book about logic.
      
      > “One thing matters to me, another to you.”
      
      Correct, to me facts, copyright and proper use of language matters. But those do not matter to you. You do not care about facts, you do not care about copyright, and you do not care about proper use of language.
      
      > “To a large majority who create digital products..”
      
      Are you referring to creators of intellectual works, or creators of goods and services? Those are two completely different things.
      
      > “..in today’s marketplace, you come off like a ignorant rambling pirate.”
      
      Are you saying that everyone in your industry are as ignorant as you, having problem with facts, copyright and proper use of language? That’s sad to hear.
      
      One ignorant person is reasonable and understandable, but if a large majority of creators are as ignorant as you seems to be, that’s troubling statistics indeed.
    - http://twitter.com/icanhazsake Ninja
      
      It’s interesting to see how clueless are the MAFIAA and its trolls. I recently found out 2 new groups that I’m willing to spend my money on them using generic terms both on TPB (and similar) and on Youtube.
      
      Also,
      
      Such a sad state of affairs when a tiny portion of people end up buying something.
      
      I’d ask for a citation but it’s clearly not the case with MAFIAA and the likes. And if your product isn’t selling you fail. HP tried to go tablet. They failed and had to rethink their strategy (lowering prices did the job). Yes, they had losses but that just means they weren’t up for the market challenge. Same with MAFIAA. If a movie is a success it will make shitloads of money regardless of how much it is downloaded for free (see Avatar, Madonna, Maroon 5, etc).
  - StevO
    
    Um no, I disagree, 70% – 80% would NOT be discovered.Because 70- 80 % of the things I have downloaded I have YET to see anywhere else. Especially with music. And most certainly with Movies, considering I have a quite a few movies from Australia, and Britain. These movies I have never heard of before or since. And tons of bands I have still never heard ANYTHING about in the USA. The TV shows I would not pay for since I already PAY for TV. I would not go out and buy them AGAIN. I pay a total of $149 a month for internet and TV. I think at the very least I should be able to download TV shows I could not watch for time restricted reasons. Or for ANY reason for that matter. I PAY a considerable amount of money to the entertainment industry every month. So consider a “term” from millions of us, PAYING CUSTOMERS.
    - BooBooKittyPhuck
      
      “Um no, I disagree, 70% – 80% would NOT be discovered.Because 70- 80 % of the things I have downloaded I have YET to see anywhere else. Especially with music.”
      
      Exactly. I listen mostly to “underground” and unsigned artists – you’ll never hear any of them on commercial radio. I support these acts by purchasing band merchandise and attending live performances – had I not discovered them on the internets, they wouldn’t receive one single cent from myself and millions of other fans / supporters…
    - Anonymous
      
      You kinda pay, but not for 70-80% of the media you’re viewing.
      
      Nothing that you’re paying goes to Britain or Australia. And its not hard at all to buy a wide range of media from either of those countries.
      
      Maybe it would be a better solution for internet subscriptions to treble, everything be free to download and for each country to re-distribute accordingly depending on what was being viewed from what country ;)
      
      Then part of your internet subscription would indeed go to the people who created the works. Free Internet, free media but, $450 a month internet charge…..you never know, it might work ;)
    - http://twitter.com/icanhazsake Ninja
      
      And its not hard at all to buy a wide range of media from either of those countries.
      
      Put aside the fact that I’m interested in Japanese stuff, your statement MIGHT be true for UK stuff (I wouldn’t know) but I’ll gladly cut my wrist if you give me a good place to buy Australian stuff for sane prices and delivery in Brazil.
      
      The 70-80% number is kind of self explanatory. If I were to buy 100% of what I ever downloaded to check I’d need to work non-stop for like 3-4 years without spending on food, clothing, Government taxes …………. I’m earning like $25k per year depending on the currency. This leads us to three main conclusions: 1- there’s a whole lot of content available, 2- there’s a LIMITED amount of money to be spent with content and 3- pricing is not reasonable.
      
      1 should be enough to drive prices down. 2 is obvious and should serve as driving force for production of quality content to actually get a larger piece of the money pie available for entertainment. 3 is the result of a retarded Government instated monopoly called copyright.
  - BooBooKittyPhuck
    
    “It’d be discovered with or without Bt.”
    
    For a fee – advertising costs money, BitTorrent is free.
    
    “”Now that it gets pirated, and people find it on torrent sites, some people may actually buy it if they like it”"
    
    Agreed. You’ve finally figured it out! <3
    
    "Such a sad state of affairs when a tiny portion of people end up buying something."
    
    Want to sell more? Produce something worth buying. Problem solved.
    
    "Is there a term for someone who doesn't ever buy the media they liked when it was downloaded for free, just curious ?"
    
    The term you're looking for is consumer: one who buys something that is actually worth buying. Merely "liking" something is not enough – in this economy, you better produce something really outstanding if you intend to $ell it. Mediocre products pushed by middlemen / labels / studios = not worth buying. It's that $imple.
    - Anonymous
      
      “Agreed. You’ve finally figured it out! <3"
      
      I was quoting from "lucb1e" – I don't agree with that at all…..unless of course I could apply it to other things…like….."I didn't like the service from my mortgage provider over the last 6 months, so I'm not going to pay" lol.
      
      The rest of what you said……just pirate talk. do you have a scale whereby if you like something you've download…..that you'll go out an buy it.
      
      For example, if on a scale where 10 is the best, if whatever you're downloading is say less than "9.5" – basically it was crap and you don't have to feel bad downloading it for free – not that you would anyway LOL
    - FinalApokylypse
      
      @PelouzeTF (Sorry no reply option for him)
      
      People do have a personal scale of what they like and don’t like and it’s not neccessarily a ranking out of 10.. It’s simple really… Whether you get content by buying or downloading illegally when you are aware of the relative cost of the product you usually will be able to figure whether it was or is worth buying for you personally.. I’ll give you some examples here seeing as you don’t actually seem to get this…
      
      I downloaded Skyrim when it first came out because I really wanted to play it. It had enough of a showing for me to believe it was worth purchasing when it came out but I simply did not have the funds otherwise it would have been a day 1 purchase from me. After playing the game for a while my perception of whether it was worth it could have changed but didn’t. After a few weeks when I had the funds I went out and bought it.
      
      I played a game called Killing Floor for 9 hours during a free weekend deal on Steam. My original perception of it was mostly positive. However after a few hours I came to the conclusion that I would not be bothered to play it in the future and therefore not worth my limited money.
      
      This same thing can be applied to movies, music, software etc. Point I’m trying to make is I know what I like and don’t like, I know whether I think something is worth it or not based on what I have gleaned off of information around me like reviews and personal experience etc. In otherwords I try to be relatively informed about my purchases as I have a limited cash supply like the majority of the population.
    - http://twitter.com/icanhazsake Ninja
      
      For example, if on a scale where 10 is the best, if whatever you’re downloading is say less than “9.5″ – basically it was crap and you don’t have to feel bad downloading it for free – not that you would anyway LOL
      
      Considering some small calculations I made, it has to be 9.7 or more or I wouldn’t be able to afford everything I really like, based on a 0-10 scale. Sometimes I have to move the mark up by 0.1 but there are times I can go for 9.5 or even less. Depends on my budget ;)
      
      This month I’m at 9.9 because I’ve already spent like $200 on several entertainment stuff ranging from books (lots of them), games and even one DVD ;)
      
      Oh, I had downloaded every single item I bought. I’ll keep the copy of most of them because it’s DRM free. And the books can be read on the phone/tablet so the downloaded copy (pirated, free, copyright infringing btw) is gonna stay around on my phone/tablet/computer.
  - DRuNKeN MaSTeR
    
    I downloaded Hydrophobia:Prophecy, then bought the game 1 hour later on Steam. I also downloaded Ignite, then deleted the game 30 minutes later. This is just an example of how good games deserve the money, and shitty games don’t. By your logic I should have had paid for Ignite, then let it gather dust and never play with it more than 30 minutes. Brilliant.
    
    Also, for some content I don’t have a choice, the MAFIAA is making me download. In Hungary they showed only the 1st season of Burn Notice, not the whole show. I *had* to pirate it, if I wanted to watch the whole series. The same goes for almost ALL TV shows. There is *NO* legal way for me in Hungary to get Burn Notice (except overpriced US import). No Hulu, no Netflix…
    - Anonymous
      
      It’s not that I don’t understand about media quantity / price / quality / affordability.
      
      Some media doesn’t live up to the hype, or it does but it still doesn’t work for you. There might be 20 various media titles released one month and fiscally, it’s hard to buy them all. Who knows, a million reasons.
      
      I’m in the same boat…..I can’t buy all the media Id like and I sometimes get burned but…….
      
      Thats what renting, netflix (or your countries equivalent) ebay, gamefly, etc etc etc is for ;)
      
      $8 a month, you can try any game and as many as you like.
      
      $3 and under, you can rent a DVD
      
      Ebay, if even after researching, anything I buy new that doesn’t quite work out …..straight onto ebay for 80/90% back. (new released titles easily get this, heck I’m getting 70% back for 4 month old games)
      
      Shows not available in your area…..I can’t help you there, never had anything that I couldn’t buy cheaply online if it wasn’t showing on cable, cable premium or netflix. This isn’t a country specific answer, its just to somewhat illustrate that very cheap entertainment sources are out there….in abundance.
ThaMessiah

This is too funny. All the sex/weird shit is @ the top
http://profiles.google.com/hansbogert hans Bogert, van den

Never would’ve thought that bad Vin Diesel movie is still worth a 5th place in 2011.
juss

i´m just watching ´the policeman´s secret ball´,from 1979,also found after years of waiting ´the wild parrots of telegraph hill´,not to forget ´the transatlantic sessions´,which,like the the other torrents,are a real treat.
Phil Landry

Come one: Number 49 Nero? You can get very good burner software for free! Don’t need to pirate nero…
- FinalApokylypse
  
  I actually prefer the free ones to Nero.. Gotta hand it to them on their promotional side though, they’ve sure hooked a lot of people..
- Guest
  
  What’re you talking about? It’s obviously about this Nero, fool:
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S35THmZD_E
  - FinalApokylypse
    
    Lol.. I think it might actually be for both things as they share the same name. But the music probably more sought after.
AnonRemains

French FTW!
3pp0

found at
https://www.kat.ph/trends/year/2011/
:)
Anonymous

So Sucker Punch came in at number 46 then like some cancer on human culture.
- http://twitter.com/icanhazsake Ninja
  
  I actually found the idea behind the movie quite amusing. Sure it’s filled with hot girls in blazing action scenes but… I like that too so it’s approved.
  
  *Perv seal of approval*
  - Anonymous
    
    When God made Man he soon said “Sorry I did not give you nearly the same brains as Women.” He then continues “Here is something to make up the difference” and promptly hands Man a Penis.
    
    Thank you for your thoughts.
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Pelle

After reading that “ita” and “french” was the most searched words I though that kickass torrent (Kat.ph) was big in Italy and France but KAT is ranked 149 in Italy and 639 in France according to Alexa.
It’s strange that these are the top two search words…..For example Pirate Bay is ranked 42 in England and I don’t think that “ita” and “French” is that big if you add all torrent trackers’s searches together.

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http://www.kat.ph#
- Saquib-Ul Haque
  
  of course… you must be in france to want to see french movies… it’s not like there are 30 or so countries that list french as an official language, OR people from other countries who might just be interested in french films for that matter…
  - Calumais
    
    you would be surpris , first u got the ex pat , french speaking peoples who live in foreign country , then u got the peoples who recognise the fact that french movies and ” no hollywood crap ” movies ( italian , japan , dutch sweden , etc ), actually a lot a cinephiles enjoy foreign movies …. but for dumbass peoples dont worry … hollywood will do a remake soon …
- http://twitter.com/icanhazsake Ninja
  
  Well, I’d look for those if I were learning those languages. I actually did with French since most French content is locked under stoopid region drm.
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Anonymous

Looks like people be looking for a lot of free stuff man.
http://twitter.com/DEMONLORD4000 DEMONLORD

lol
Latino8heat

x art
Fabio

Undeniable proof that the Italians are responsible for SOPA. Way 2 Go!
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Successfulmingle Com

My best Frie’nd ,She just has announced her Wedding with a RICH young man Ronald who is the CEO of a MNC ! They met via Rich,——-S.u.c.c.e.s.s.f.u.l.m.i.n.g.l.e . ? ? M— is The Largest and Best club for Wealthy people and their admirers to chat online. …you don’t have to be rich there ,but you may meet One ,maybe you wanna check it out or tell your friends !
He is so freaken amazing looking- geez louise!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gosh I’m gushing-lol
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http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Anderson/100000208969581 John Anderson

Use Boounce.com to search all the top torrent sites with the same search term.
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Ass

How I met your mother!? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA So fucking random
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http://www.musicok.in.th/ musicradio

555 wow sudyod pai lay
http://www.musicok.in.th/ Musicradio online

Is not ranked in the top songs I like it.
Supercoolkid

I wonder who wrote PSP
like they expect to get a psp delivered to their door
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Xenmonk

you are ALWAYS paying for anything, you download stuff your cellphone provider, mobile broadband or internet provider is always getting rich. so in actual fact you are paying for pirated or legal data. who’s laughing now?
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