Google's Thursday-released Zeitgeist 2011 - the company's year-end retrospective which discloses the `hottest queries of the year' - has revealed that the fastest-rising search term round the globe on Google in the year 2011 was' Rebecca Black', whose song "Friday" was a YouTube hit.

To emerge right at the top of the annual Zeitgeist ranking of terms that witnessed the maximum growth, Black outshined Google new social networking service, Google+, which was the second fastest-rising term in Zeitgeist 2011 ranking.

Among the other fastest-rising terms on the Zeitgeist 2011 `top 10' list were the Paramount Pictures' "Jackass" film star Ryan Dunn who died in a car crash; Casey Anthony, who was found not guilty of her daughter's murder; musical artist Adele; the Apple iPhone and iPad; and Apple's iconic co-founder Steve Jobs who died in October.

With regard to the fastest-rising US news terms, Hurricane Irene was in the top spot; followed by Occupy, in accordance with the Occupy Wall Street campaign which was essentially an outburst against the financial industry.

In terms of the US technological arena, the fastest-rising product searches were dominated by the HP TouchPad, which featured right at the top. Other products that caught the interest of the consumers included tablets as well as smartphones, like the Samsung Galaxy S; and the Apple iPhone.

In the fastest-rising gadgets category, the device that aroused the maximum interest in the consumers was the new Amazon Kindle Fire tablet; with the iPhone 4S ranking in a close second spot.