From Don Trump to long jump and racecars to Blackstars, 2016 has had us searching high and low for explanations to the baffling year we’ve faced. As the search giant is wont to do, it’s crunched the numbers and produced a list of the things we’ve been frantically Googling - whether that be people, events, places, or even recipes - that weren’t even a blip on our radar 12 months ago.
Unsurprisingly, sitting atop the pile of trending search terms was the US Election and its victor, occupying poll position (heh) across overall searches, news topics and people.
Meanwhile, our own PM Malcolm Turnbull has scraped in at number nine on the list of Aussies, squeezed between the controversy of Sonia Kruger and the cuteness of Michelle Jenneke, and perhaps proving that we don’t care all that much about politics involving non-celebrities.
The tears ran heavy on the non-political stage as well, with the majority of morbid attention going to the deaths of performance giants like David Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen and Alan Rickman.
Chin up, 2016!
On a lighter note, we’re still a nation knee-deep in sport. Aside from it being an Olympic year, we’ve been hanging out for the UEFA Euro League Soccer, the Australian Open and the UFC, and are pretty interested in their respective athletes as well.
In beautiful contrast, the most searched tech item was the iPhone 7, while “how to screenshot on mac” was the second highest how-to we asked, following closely behind the timeless quandary of “how to tie a tie”.
As for our curiosity, we’re all wanting to know our IP address and the meaning of life; why our poop is green and why biodiversity is important; how to play Pokemon Go and what it even is; and, perhaps most alarmingly, where the bloody hell is NSW?
- Some tips to improve your searching in 2017: Advanced Google search tips and tricks
