Japan Tops the List of Fastest-Rising Charitable Google Searches in 2011

After an earthquake and tsunami devastated parts of Japan in March, many Americans turned to Google’s search engine to see how they could help disaster victims.

So many searched, in fact, that they made “donate to Japan,” “Red Cross Japan,” and “Japan relief” the three fastest-rising charitable searches in the United States this year.

Google this week released its annual Zeitgeist report, which tallies the 10 most popular and fastest-rising searches in a wide range of categories. To come up with the fastest-rising terms, it compared searches this year to those in 2010.

Some may not be surprising. The Second Mile, a charity founded by the former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, ranked fifth. Searches for the charity increased rapidly after news came out in November about a grand jury investigating accusations that Mr. Sandusky molested several young boys. (He has denied those accusations.)

Several large charities are also included in the list. The Make-a-Wish Foundation ranks No. 9. Goodwill Industries and the Salvation Army also appear on the list, both with the word “donation.” Also in the top 10 is “Joe Corbi,” a company that supplies pizza, candy, and other food to Little Leagues, parent-teacher groups, and other organizations that want to sell the items to raise money.

The complete list:

1. Donate to Japan

2. Red Cross Japan

3. Japan Relief

4. South Sudan

5. Second Mile Foundation

6. Goodwill Donation Center

7. Joe Corbi

8. Headstart

9. Make A Wish

10. Salvation Army Donations

To see a visualization of increasing in searches on these terms, visit Google’s Zeitgeist 2011 site.