If you’ve used Google this year to search for Ryan Gosling’s performance at the Oscars, theater times for Inside Out 2, or directions to the Sphere Experience in Las Vegas, then you’re very much not alone.
The search giant has released lists of its biggest trending terms for 2024, with top 10s for categories as diverse as sports teams, workouts, pickle recipes and interior design style.
It’s possibly the only place on the internet where you’ll see Kamala Harris, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the Boston Celtics and pillow face aesthetic grouped together in one place.
Trump Beats Harris Again
Unveiled by Google on Tuesday, you can discover the top global trends for the year or break it down by country.
In the US, there’s no prizes for guessing that ‘Election’ was the most searched term of all, with Donald Trump next. Kamala Harris is fifth in the list.
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Other searches in the overall top 10 are sporting terms ‘New York Yankees’ (who made it to their first World Series in 15 years), ‘Copa América’ (the South American soccer tournament won by Lionel Messi’s Argentina) and ‘Olympic medal count’, together with deceased music stars Toby Keith and Liam Payne.
However, there are less obvious search terms that help to make up the top 10, too. ‘Connections’ had the third highest total, referring to the The New York Times’s puzzle game. While ‘Hurricane Milton tracker’ came in seventh.
From Presidents to Princesses
We suspect that X owner Elon Musk will be disappointed to learn that he isn’t within the most searched for people in the US; the top six comprises the presidential candidates and their running mates, President Joe Biden and Princess Catherine.
The most searched actor in 2024 may come as a surprise to many. Not Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp, but Friday After Next star Katt Williams, whose vitriolic two-hour interview with Shannon Sharpe went viral in January. He leads a chart that also includes Saltburn’s Jacob Elordi and Barry Keoghan, The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White, Fallout’s Ella Purnell and Hollywood legend Jodie Foster.
The most searched performance of the year belongs to Australian B-girl Raygun and her so-bad-it’s-good breakdance routine at the Paris Olympics. Usher’s Super Bowl set is also on the list, which helped the R&B star head the musician list ahead of Diddy, Sabrina Carpenter and feuding rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake.
Same Same But Different
‘Olympic chocolate muffins’, ‘dill pickle bread recipe’ and ‘mob wife aesthetic’ all feature among various other categories in the US, while optimists in their droves have searched out the meaning of ‘burnt toast theory’. ‘Demure’ is the biggest trending trend of the 2024.
Globally, soccer and cricket dominated Google searches, with the Copa América, UEFA European Championship, ICC Men’s T20 World Cup and India vs England Test series taking all four top spots. The iPhone 16, which runs off Apple’s latest iOS18 operating system, also makes an appearance as the eighth most searched term.
Baby Reindeer has been the biggest trending TV show around the world, with Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine the most popular movies.
Over on Google Maps, Madison Square Garden, Las Vegas’s Sphere and hiking routes in the Dater Mountain Nature Park have all had users looking.
Despite suggesting that there’s a massive array of different terms entered into the search engine, however, a recent study shows that the reality is a little more homogenous with 15% of all Google search terms being made up of just 148 keywords.
