Year in search 2018: Google announces top terms people searched

Credit: Leon Neal

Credit: Leon Neal

Around the world, people search Google for just about anything. In 2018, the term they searched most often was "World Cup."

Google released its list of top searches, broken down by category and by country. Worldwide, the top five searches, in order, were "World Cup," "Avicii," "Mac Miller," "Stan Lee" and "Black Panther."

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The top search term stayed the same in the United States, but was followed by “Hurricane Florence,” “Mac Miller,” “Kate Spade” and “Anthony Bourdain.”

Meghan Markle was the most Googled person in 2018, up from No. 2 in 2017. Her royal wedding to Prince Harry was No. 4 on the list of news searches.

Two Marvel blockbusters sparked curiosity globally: “Black Panther” clocked in as the No. 1 most-searched movie and “Avengers: Infinity War” was No. 4.

Google expanded its categories for country-specific results, including politicians, “who...?” “what is...?” and “how to... .”

More people in the U.S. searched for Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate in the Georgia gubernatorial race, than any other politician. Abrams beat Beto O'Rourke, Ted Cruz, Andrew Gillum and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in that order.

This year’s midterm elections sparked Americans’ need for information, specifically “How to vote” and “How to register to vote,” which were at the top of the “how to...” list.

More Google search trends from the year can be found at the Google Trends website.

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