Google’s top searches of 2017 were Hurricane Irma, Matt Lauer
The top searches in the US also included bitcoin, the solar eclipse and soon-to-be member of the royal family Meghan Markle.
This was the year of #MeToo and hurricanes.
And that was reflected in the way people searched for stuff online. Google said Wednesday that the two top trending topics of 2017 in the US were "Hurricane Irma" and "Matt Lauer." In Google parlance, "top trending" means they had the highest spike in traffic over a certain period of time this year compared to last year. The search giant also released a list of top global searches that featured a variety of queries about Apple's iPhone.
Hurricane Irma was the storm that ravaged the Caribbean and Florida Keys in September. Lauer is the former co-host of NBC's "Today" show, who was fired last month amid allegations of sexual harassment.
Google is the world's largest search engine and one of the most iconic sites on the internet. So popular search queries give us a good look into what people were thinking about over the past year. Last year, people mourned Prince, got lottery fever and, not surprisingly, searched all about the US election.
As for this year, it was a moment of reckoning for powerful men behaving badly. Lauer was just one of many prominent men in media, entertainment and tech who was called out for alleged sexual misconduct -- a list that includes producer Harvey Weinstein, comedian Louis CK and music mogul Russell Simmons. The movement spawned a widely shared hashtag, #MeToo, used by women to demonstrate the far-reaching prevalence of sexual harassment.
On the lighter side of searches, the top-queried person after Lauer, not including searches for people who died, was Meghan Markle. The actress announced her engagement to Prince Harry last month.
When it came to news events, people were concerned about hurricanes. Irma, Harvey, Jose and Maria took four out of the 10 spots on the top trending news searches of the year. Other news stories that piqued people's interest were the solar eclipse and the price of the cryptocurrency bitcoin.
Check out the full lists below.
Searches
Hurricane Irma
Matt Lauer
Tom Petty
Super Bowl
Las Vegas shooting
Mayweather vs McGregor Fight
solar eclipse
Hurricane Harvey
Aaron Hernandez
fidget spinner
People (not including deaths)
Matt Lauer
Meghan Markle
Harvey Weinstein
Michael Flynn
Kevin Spacey
Bill O'Reilly
Melania Trump
Kathy Griffin
Milo Yiannopoulos
Gal Gadot
News
Hurricane Irma
Las Vegas shooting
solar eclipse
Hurricane Harvey
bitcoin price
North Korea
Hurricane Jose
Hurricane Maria
April the giraffe
DACA
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