What do football, Ebola & iPhone 6 have in common? Britain’s most-Googled 2014
The world’s most popular search engine has revealed a list of its most popular UK searches of 2014. Among the top spots for most searched stories are the World Cup in Brazil, Ebola and the iPhone 6.
Ebola was the top news story of the year, followed closely by ALS – which triggered the infamous ‘ice bucket challenge’. Malaysian Airlines also featured highly, after losing two passenger planes in separate incidents during 2014.
The fourth most-popular news story was Luis Suarez biting Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini during the World Cup in Brazil. Scottish Independence was apparently not quite as titillating, coming in fifth. The seemingly-perennial Cliff Richard, the celebrity photo hack and Oscar Pistorius also featured in the top 10.
“Google's Year in Search gives us the best snapshot of what moved, inspired, shocked and intrigued us in 2014,” said Google’s Stephen Rosenthal.
“With so many of us now having multiple computers, phones and tablets immediately to hand, these results are the most accurate and comprehensive collection of what the UK's been talking about this year.”
More than 2 trillion searches were registered on Google worldwide in 2013.
The deaths of celebrities like Peaches Geldof, Robin Williams and Rik Mayall were also among the top 10 trending searches list, as well as the mobile game Flappy Bird, the Grand National and actress Jennifer Lawrence. The most searched male celebrity was Ed Sheeran, followed by Jay Z.
The full list of top-trending searches:
World Cup 2014
iPhone 6
Peaches Geldof
Robin Williams
Rik Mayall
Flappy Bird
Ebola
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Grand National 2014
Jennifer Lawrence
The most common question posed was “Who is Banksy?” followed by “Who is Frenchy?” (a Celebrity Big Brother star). The list also included “What is ALS?” as well as searches for Hamas and ISIS.
People also tried to learn new skills with the help of Google, asking “How to draw,” followed by “How to kiss” and “How to crochet,” as well as trying to get instructions on how to meditate, knit, twerk, squat, Skype, study and hypnotize.
The top news stories were:
Ebola
ALS
Malaysian Airlines
Luis Suarez Bite
Scottish Independence
Cliff Richard
Celebrity Photo Hack
Oscar Pistorius
Michael Schumacher
Frank Maloney
Here is the list of what is...?
What is Ebola?
What is ALS?
What is love?
What is fracking?
What is autism?
What is gluten?
What is lupus?
What is anxiety?
What is gout?
What is twerking?
And here’s the full list of ‘Who is...?’
Who is Banksy?
Who is Frenchy?
Who is Dappy?
Who is Hamas?
Who is Sia?
Who is Ultron?
Who is ISIS?
Who is R5?
Who is Twiggy?
Who is Lohanthony?
