On Tuesday, Google unveiled its 13th annual Zeitgeist, a breakdown of around 1.2 trillion searches, which revealed one pressing question that people just couldn't ask enough times in 2013:
"WHAT IS TWERKING"
This year in search had plenty of other drama as well, from the birth of the royal baby to the death of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela. So what else were Google users curious about in 2013?
GOOGLE EXPLAINS THE NEWS:
Snapchat, DOMA, Molly, bitcoin. All of these terms popped up regularly in news stories in 2013. The problem? Apparently people didn't know what they meant. (They are, respectively, a photo-sharing app, the Defense of Marriage Act, a nickname for the newly popular club drug MDMA, and a virtual currency).
The number one "What is?" question, however, centered around pop singer Miley Cyrus and her controversial grind-it-out performance at the 2013 MTV Music Video Awards.
In case you were wondering, the Oxford Dictionaries' answer to "What is twerking" is: a sexually provocative dance "involving thrusting hip movements and a low, squatting stance." (Yeah, you kind of need to see it to understand. Warning: Cannot be unseen).
Here are the rest of Google's top 10 "What" questions from 2013: 1. What is twerking? 2. What is ricin? 3. What is DOMA? 4. What is Molly? 5. What is gluten? 6. What is sequestration? 7. What is Obamacare? 8. What is lupus? 9. What is Snapchat? 10. What is bitcoin?
DEALING WITH TRAGEDY:
The world mourned the death of multiple notable names this year, including Nelson Mandela, the revered civil rights leader and first black president of South Africa, who died in December at the age of 95. His name was the top global trending search term (meaning it had the highest amount of traffic over a sustained period in 2013 compared with 2012). Behind him in Google's search rankings was Paul Walker, the "Fast and the Furious" star who died at age 40 in a single-car accident near Los Angeles. Next, after the iPhone 5S, was Cory Monteith, the former "Glee" actor who died at age 31 in a Vancouver hotel room after reported alcohol and "intravenous drug use." And in the U.S. rankings, James Gandolfini from "The Sopranos," who died while on vacation in Italy at age 51, was the seventh most-searched term of 2013.
Here, overall, are the top trending searches in 2013 from around the world:
1. Nelson Mandela 2. Paul Walker 3. iPhone 5S 4. Cory Monteith 5. Harlem Shake 6. Boston Marathon 7. Royal baby 8. Samsung Galaxy S4 9. PlayStation 4 10. North Korea
GOOGLE GIVES LIFE ADVICE:
How many of Google's users are awkward teenage boys? Apparently, plenty of them, because three of the top 10 "How to" questions were people asking how to tie a tie, kiss and flirt. A few other things U.S. users wanted to know: 1. How to tie a tie 2. How to file 3. How to get a passport 4. How to blog 5. How to knit 6. How to kiss 7. How to flirt 8. How to whistle 9. How to un-jailbreak 10. How to Vader Source: http://t.today.com/tech/twerking-nelson-mandela-how-tie-tie-googles-top-searches-2013-2D11744553#plants-zombies-stealing-cars-best-video-games-2013-2D11741583 |