We know that bloggers love them, that readers skim them, and that social tagging sites promote them, but which “Top 10″ lists does the public really want to see? Which “Top 10′s” are people looking for the most when using search engines?

Just for fun, recent research by Epiar looked into these questions, hoping to settle the matter once and for all (and to provide blog-post ideas for creatively-challenged writers!)

The Web’s Top Ten Top 10′s: (try saying that 10 times quickly…)

1. Top ten baby names
2. Top ten girls names
3. Top 10
4. Top ten
5. Top 10 songs
6. Top ten search engines
7. Top 10 celebrity websites
8. Top ten songs
9. Top ten wedding songs
10. Top 10 pop songs

…and following close behind:

11. Top 10 baby names
12. Top 10 travel destinations
13. Top ten lists
14. Top 10 cult movies
15. Top 10 movies
16. Top 10 home based business
17. Top 10 rap songs
18. Top 10 franchises
19. Top 10 home based businesses
20. Top 10 antivirus software products
21. Top ten movies
22. Top 10 digital cameras
23. Top ten baby names uk
24. Top 10 xbox games
25. Top ten travel destinations
26. Top 10 horror movies
27. Top 10 lists
28. Top 10 search engines
29. Top ten boys names
30. Top 10 best used cars

Numbers 3 and 4 raise an interesting question: Top Ten/10 what?

If I was in the travel business, guess what new weekly feature I’d include on my home page? (# 12 or 25)

Composition of the “Top 10″ Long Tail

Taking a closer look at over 6000 phrases included in this study, certain words and themes appeared quite prominently in the long tail of public search demand. Although I was surprised to find the dominance of searches for baby girl and boy names, more predictable pop-culture topics also figured heavily in “Top 10″ searches:

For a full list of the searches included in this study, check out the complete Top 6000 “Top 10″ Lists.

While research like this may be more entertaining than practical (unless anyone feels like writing 6000 new blog posts?), it sure is fun to see what people are looking for!

Epiar Inc. is an Edmonton-based internet market research and search engine optimization company. Please contact us for more information or to commission your own research reports.