Paralympics appears prominently in Google Zeitgeist film

During the London 2012 Paralympic Games, the International Paralympic Committee registered record-breaking figures for its website and social media channels.

Four different Paralympic scenes appeared in Google’s yearly highlights film, Google Zeitgeist [http://youtu.be/xY_MUB8adEQ], an in-depth look at the "spirit of the times" as seen through the billions of searches on Google over the past year.

The Google Zeitgeist website [http://www.google.com/zeitgeist/2012] also includes over 800 lists of top search terms from 55 countries. In the UK, murderball (wheelchair rugby) and wheelchair basketball were the second and third most-searched-for sports. In Ireland, visually impaired sprinter Jason Smyth was the fifth most searched for athlete and in South Africa the Paralympics was the third most-searched-for event.

Google’s film opens with a search for “here’s to the curious” in which Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner is followed by shots of South African double-amputee sprinter, Oscar Pistorius, who raced at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Later in the film, a Google search “for something special” reveals the London 2012 Paralympic Closing ceremony, and the Agitos, the Paralympic symbol, hung from Tower Bridge in London.

Brazilian swimmer Daniel Dias is shown diving into the pool, and Oscar Pistorius is seen rounding the curve in the 200m T44 final in which Brazil’s Alan Fonteles pushed ahead to take a shock gold.

The Paralympic Games were a huge online success this year. Twitter revealed earlier in the week that #Paralympics was the top trending hashtag in the UK, beating off Manchester United Football Club (#MUFC) and the #Olympics.

During the London 2012 Paralympic Games, the International Paralympic Committee registered record-breaking figures for its website and social media channels. Nearly 2 million people visited www.paralympic.org and there were close to nine million views on the IPC YouTube channel www.youtube.com/paralympicsporttv.

To build on this social media success the IPC, which is the international federation of nine sports, has recently launched sport-specific Facebook pages and Twitter handles

• IPC Athletics @IPCAthletics

• IPC Swimming @IPCSwimming

• IPC Shooting @IPCShooting

• IPC Powerflifting @IPCPowerlifting

• IPC Alpine Skiing @IPCAlpine

• IPC Nordic Skiing (includes cross-country and biathlon) @IPCNordic

• IPC Ice Sledge Hockey @IPCISH

This compliments the IPC’s other social media outlets on Google+, Youtube, Facebook and Twitter.