Each year, Google compiles a report of the year's most popular search terms. This year's report can be found at Google Zeitgeist 2007.

The Zeitgeist analysis doesn't simply track the most common searches, but the searches that have risen the fastest since the previous year. In this way, Google tries to figure out what we're all thinking about.

"To get a glimpse of what's been on our collective consciousness, we mined billions of search queries to discover what sorts of things rose to the top," says Susan Straccia of the Google Zeitgeist Team. "...what I found particularly interesting were some of the timeless themes that surfaced: what is love, who is god and how to kiss, to name a few."

Data for the US shows searches about God beating out searches about Britney Spears. Among the top 10 searches in the "who is?" category are these: "who is God" (number 1); "who is Jesus" (number 4); and "who is Satan" (number 10).

Top-ranked in the "what is?" category is the question, "what is love?"

Lots of other interesting results in the data, which suggest that the Wii, American Idol and Heroes are also very big in American life.

But as Christians, I think we'd agree that the God results are fascinating. Do they suggest a growing interest in "spiritual things?" Are these results linked to the heavy god-talk in the presidential campaign, our continuing awareness of the threat of the violent Islamists, or... what?

If the data suggests a growing interest in God, what are we doing to respond?