In Yahoo's top product-related searches for 2005, Sony's PSP came in at sixth place overall. The Xbox 360 came in seventh overall. The Nintendo Revolution was not searched for enough in 2005 to earn a spot on this year's rankings, though Sony's PlayStation 3 was. Only one other electronics device (the iPod) outranked the PSP and Xbox 360. This is interesting because search activity is a raw measure of general interest in a product.

Is it surprising that the PSP topped the Xbox 360 as a search item in 2005? One interpretation is that search tends to be driven by advertising and word of mouth and that there tends to be more of it after a given device has launched. Since the PSP had more post-launch months in 2005, it's natural that it would outrank the Xbox 360. If this is the case, then the Xbox 360 has done nearly as well in one month as the PSP has done in nine months.

Another interpretation is that search activity is directly correlated to pre-launch hype. In other words, it's the pre-launch buzz that really drove Yahoo's search traffic. If this is the case, then the Xbox 360 underperformed versus the PSP. We can't know for sure unless Yahoo wants to release the numbers behind their rankings.

One thing's certain: 2006's numbers will be very interesting.

[Image credit: small portion of the image from Yahoo's search feature, linked-to below.]