As 2018 comes to a close, Google is taking a look back at some of the most popular searches.
Both globally and in the U.S., the World Cup was the top trending search on Google in this year. Celebrity deaths also received a lot of buzz: Avicii was the second most popular search globally, followed by Mac Miller and Marvel giant Stan Lee. In film, Black Panther rounded out the global top five.
In a Wednesday blog post, Google News Lab Data Editor Simon Rogers wrote that “people continued to search for ‘good’ …more than ever” in the year 2018.
“We searched for good news of championships, medal counts and royal weddings, and sought out bright spots throughout the year,” Rogers wrote. “We also searched for how to be a good citizen, how to be a good friend, and how to be a good dancer.
In the U.S., the top “how to” searches included “how to vote,” “how to register to vote,” and “how to play Mega Millions.” There were also a few tech-related queries, such as “how to buy [the cryptocurrency] Ripple,” “how to turn off automatic updates,” and “how to get the old Snapchat back.” The top “what is” search in the US was “what is Bitcoin,” which quite frankly, I would like to know myself.
During the well-known Thai cave rescue, searches for “scuba diving lessons near me” also increased by 110 percent.
Other popular searches this year included the Keto Diet, Logan Paul, 1980’s fashion, and Fortnite. I wouldn’t have trusted the data if Fortnite didn’t make the list.
Here’s to another search-filled 2019.
