Google unveils 2024 "Year in Search," highlighting top trending queries

Google's annual “Year in Search” report highlights the top trending queries of 2024, showcasing the terms with the highest spike in traffic compared to the previous year.

The list includes a mix of major global events, including elections, as well as popular songs, athletes, and memorable pop-culture moments searched worldwide, News.Az reports, citing AP.

Sports — particularly soccer and cricket — dominated Google’s overall trending searches in 2024. Copa América topped those search trends globally, followed by the UEFA European Championship and ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.

Meanwhile, the U.S. election led news-specific searches worldwide. Queries about excessive heat and this year’s Olympic Games followed.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump topped searches in Google’s people category this year — followed by Catherine, Princess of Wales, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who also led athlete-specific searches. Meanwhile, the late Liam Payne, Toby Keith and O.J. Simpson led search trends among notable individuals who died in 2024.

In the world of entertainment, Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” was the top trending movie of the year, while Netflix’s “Baby Reindeer” led TV show trends. And Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” dominated song trends.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Queries for the Olympic village’s chocolate muffin, made famous by Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen over the summer games, led Google’s global recipe trends this year. The New York Times’ “Connections” puzzle topped game searches. And in the U.S., country-specific data shows, many people asked Google about online trends like the word “demure” and “ mob wife aesthetic.”

You can find more country-specific lists, and trends from years past, through Google’s “Year in Search” data published online. The California company said it collected 2024 search results from Jan. 1 through Nov. 23 of this year.

Google isn’t the only one to publish an annual recap or top trends as 2024 draws to a close. Spotify Wrapped, for example, as well as Collins Dictionary and Merriam-Webster’s words of the year, have offered additional reflections for 2024.

News.Az