Heres your 2014 Google Zeitgeist, better known as the last 12 months in Google Search. The company does this every year, and its always fascinating because search sheds light, however disappointingly, onto what the heck people on earth are thinking about. Because when you want to know more about something, you Google it. As with the 2014 trending YouTube videos we listed last week, these searches are trends, which dont necessarily reflect the most searched terms overall. These are the terms that exploded in popularity at certain times. The overall search trends in the United States and globally look pretty similar. They include some of the most shocking and exciting news events of the year: The death of Robin Williams, the Ebola outbreak, the Malaysia Airlines disasters, and of course, the World Cup. Youll note that Ukraine and Ferguson trend in the United States but not globally. Global Trending Searches 1. Robin Williams 2. World Cup 3. Ebola 4. Malaysia Airlines 5. ALS Ice Bucket Challenge 6. Flappy Bird 7. Conchita Wurst 8. ISIS 9. Frozen 10. Sochi Olympics US Trending Searches 1. Robin Williams 2. World Cup 3. Ebola 4. Malaysia Airlines 5. Flappy Bird 6. ALS Ice Bucket Challenge 7. ISIS 8. Ferguson 9. Frozen 10. Ukraine Speaking of Robin Williams, the deaths of famous people are frequently amongst the most discussed stories each year. Here are the passings we couldnt let go. US Trending Celebrity Losses 1. Robin Williams 2. Joan Rivers 3. Philip Seymour Hoffman 4. Maya Angelou 5. Jan Hooks 6. Harold Ramis 7. Shirley Temple 8. Lauren Bacall 9. Mickey Rooney 10. James Avery Dead people are the only ones to cause a stir. The living dominate the list of trending global people searches. We search for people like Jennifer Lawrence and Matthew McConaughey because we love them. But others show up on this list because theyve fallen into disgrace: Im looking at you Donald Sterling. Wait. Where is Taylor Swift? Global Trending People 1. Jennifer Lawrence 2. Kim Kardashian 3. Julie Gayet 4. Tracy Morgan 5. Renee Zellweger 6. Jared Leto 7. Lorde 8. Matthew McConaughey 9. Amal Almamuddin 10. Donald Sterling And our disappointment doesnt end there. 2014s most trending athlete in Google Search is Ray Rice, the football star who made headlines for physically attacking his wife. US Trending Athletes 1. Ray Rice 2. Adrian Peterson 3. Richard Sherman 4. Paul George 5. Carmelo Anthony 6. Derek Jeter 7. Johnny Manziel 8. Russell Wilson 9. Tony Gwynn 10. Tim Howard Ill end on gadgets—this is Gizmodo after all. The trending list includes obvious trendsetters like the iPhone, but others are a little more surprising to those of us who spend our lives looking at these things. Global Trending Consumer Electronics 1. iPhone 6 2. Samsung Galaxy S5 3. Nexus 6 4. Moto G 5. Samsung Note 4 6. LG G3 7. XBox One 8. Apple Watch 9. Nokia X 10. iPad Air As a whole the trending searches paint a picture of humanity in 2014 thats paradoxically both unsurprising and interesting. We cant defy our nature: Year after miserable year were driven to hysteria by the same damn things, and every year, its fun to look back and see what drove us mad during the preceding 12 months. Theres way more on the Google Search Trends page so go check it out. [Google]
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 09:41:26 +0000
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