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This year’s biggest Google search trends pretty much sum up 2016
According to this year’s biggest Google search trends, 2016 was a year filled with unexpected political outcomes and people walking around catching virtual animals.
2016 is coming to an end already, and we all know what that means: we get to find out some of the most popular search terms on Google. These top trending searches had the highest spike in traffic over a long period of time during 2016 relative to the year before. Also note that these results are specific to the US, not worldwide trends.
Well, here they are, the top ten searches of 2016:
- Powerball
- Prince
- Hurricane Matthew
- Pokémon Go
- Slither.io
- Olympics
- David Bowie
- Trump
- Election
- Hillary Clinton
These ten terms essentially sum up 2016. The January Powerball jackpot was the biggest in the world at $1.56 billion, which was eventually split three ways, and it seems like people were very curious about the jaw-dropping amount. Prince takes the second place. The legend died back in April at the age of 57, may he rest in peace. Hurricane Matthew was the third most popular search term. The destructive tropical cyclone took the lives of 1,600 people, most of them from the cholera-stricken Haiti (smh, UN).
The fourth shouldn’t come as a surprise. Pokemon Go. What exploded this past summer died down quite fast, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t break all sorts of world records. The Internet was overflowing with articles about the augmented reality game: from tips to reckless players catching virtual creatures to their deaths. Welcome to the 21st century.
Among the rest, three are related to the US presidential election, and not surprisingly so. From what felt like centuries of campaigning all the way to the jaw-dropping result, this year’s election was a rollercoaster ride. And with the most recent CIA report, who knows how much more traffic these would generate in the next few weeks.
At any rate, there it is, folks – 2016 was a tumultuous year filled with deaths of beloved celebrities (as well as the Galaxy Note 7), devastating natural disasters, political demagogues, and continuing war violence. Here’s hoping that 2017 is more about peace, love, and of course, Android.