Load the Game

Google’s top trending searches for 2014: getting tied up with the internet

• Egon Kilin
• December 17th, 2014

Google’s top trending searches for 2014 paint a picture of what has been going on in the world in the past year, emphasizing the most important events and people of the year. Out of the billions of searches that have been performed on the search engine, a dozen of them stand out and portray what the public’s interests were focusing on in 2014. If you expect to see smartphones and gadgets as Google’s top trending searches this year, you might be disappointed and surprised at the same time.

Ferguson, the ice bucket challenge and ISIS were among Google’s top trending searches for this year, showing us that word about important events as well as insignificant ones, not to mention charitable activities has a way of spreading much more rapidly due to the internet. Google’s top trending searches for 2014 reveal, yet again, that with the help of the internet, certain events or concepts can become overhyped and headlines, and spread word about what people should actually care about. It’s no surprise that the Ferguson shooting made Google’s top trending searches for 2014 since it cause a fiasco and a lot of protest all around the United States.

Still, Robin Williams topped the list of Google’s top trending searches this year, which comes as a bit of a surprise. Nonetheless, it proves that Robin Williams was one of the most popular public figures and actors in the world and many were grief-stricken to hear about his suicide. At the same time, searches for Robin Williams show that people were becoming interested in what depression and anxiety brought on and why those afflictions would cause a person to commit suicide. With Robin Williams as the top of Google’s top trending searches for 2014, his death raised awareness about how serious depression can get and prompted people to search for symptoms and methods of helping people with the affliction. The World Cup and Ebola occupy the next two spots in Google’s top trending searches, which is no surprise in my mind, since Ebola has been one of the biggest strains of events this year, bringing on concerns and panic as well as awareness about the health care systems around the world.

Malaysia Airlines and Flappy Bird were in the 4th and 5th spots in Google’s top trending searches for 2014, demonstrating that people have a hard time forgetting that a whole aircraft has gone missing, as well as the fascination people can have for extremely annoying games. When it comes to public figures, Google’s top trending searches for 2014 focused on celebrities and athletes, Jennifer Lawrence being the most searched for persona on Google. With the iCloud hack and the overwhelming success of Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence’s popularity has risen sky-high, people looking for nudes or for petitions to find the hackers and bring them to justice. Kim Kardashian, Tracy Morgan, Ray Rice and Tony Stewart were the runner-ups in celebrity searches.

Google’s top trending searches for movies found Frozen at the top of the list, the animation from Disney that has had so many people hooked with its music. At the same time, people got increasingly fascinated with selfies, searching for selfies of celebrities or leaked selfies showing nude or uncomfortable photos. Ellen DeGeneres’ selfie was one of the most shared, retweeted and popular images in the interned, showing off how celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Channing Tatum, Bradley Cooper, Lupita Nyong’o and Julia Roberts. The Oscar selfie is the most retweeted and most popular subject when it comes to selfies.

In Google’s top trending searches for 2014, the how-to category revealed that people were getting more and more interested in AirDrop, contouring, voting and kissing. Questions regarding dogs were also among the most popular searches, people looking to find out why dogs eat grass or if they dream when they sleep. Google’s top trending searches for 2014 demonstrate that people are getting more and more tied up in the internet and that the search engine is becoming one of the most reliable sources of information as well as entertainment in all tech enthusiasts or average people’s minds.