The Top Searches in 2015
As 2015 draws to a close, and 2016 is hot on its tails, we as the world still have a hugely differing set of searches on Google.
Back in February, there were more than 73 million searches for The Dress. I think it was blue and black you know. Or was it white and gold? I can’t quite remember. Anyway, that dress received a multitude of responses from across the globe, arguments in classrooms and on forums, and general mass discussion. Now, I’m not sure which the original is out of the 2 pictures however, what I can tell is that one of the pictures is the original, and the other is the same picture, just with the colours inverted.
The next result spread across both February and March – I think it’s the tail end of Feb and the beginning of March, though I could be wrong. The 11th Cricket World Cup was searched for more than 323 million times! That’s almost 4.5x the amount of searches that there were for The Dress! Now, I’m not massive on cricket myself, but it’s clear how popular the sport is when you have got that many people searching for a sport that can see a match stretch over several days – anything for extra pay, ay lads.
It’s scary to think that it’s been 9 months already since the plane crash in The Aps, when Germanwings plane 9525 came down. On March 24, Germanwings flight 9525 crashed over the French Alps while traveling from Barcelona, Spain to Düsseldorf, Germany. The wreckage was discovered north-west of Nice, the crash having killed all 144 passengers and six crew members on board.
April bought us the Nepal Earthquake – another natural disaster which, unfortunately, was inevitable. At 11:56 a.m. Nepalese time on April 25, 2015, an 8.1 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, destroying thousands of homes, triggering a massive landslide on Mount Everest and killing approximately 9,000 people.
Then came May, when every Briton was deliberating who they were going to vote for in the general election. As many people will know, David Cameron got kept in. I’ve never been massive on politics, so I’ll keep this short and sweet. On Thursday, May 7, Great Britain voted for a new government, after five years of coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. The UK took to search to find out more about the party leaders and their policies, right up to Polling Day.
May also bought us the new Royal baby – Princess Charlotte. With more the 105 million searches, the Royal Baby was by far one of the hot topics. On September 4, 2014, it was announced that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were expecting their second child. As with her first pregnancy, the Duchess suffered from an extreme form of morning sickness called hyperemesis gravidarum. At 08.34am on the 2 May 2015, the Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to a baby girl weighing weighing 8lb 3oz. They named the baby Charlotte Elizabeth Diana.
In June this year, China took centre stage when the Shanghai Stock Market in China dropped by 30%, racking up more than 12 million searches. As Greece’s economy faltered in June, China’s stock market crashed. Search interest around the world reflected exposure to each crisis. The world took to Google to ask “Is it safe to invest in China?” Search interest in the Shanghai Stock Exchange was higher this year than ever before.
As mentioned in June, Greece’s economy was near ruin. In July, more than 35 million people searched for Greece being on the brink with their financial situation. Greece became the first developed country to fail to make an IMF loan repayment. Searches for “Euro to Dollar” were higher during the Greece Euro referendum than at any time, ever. “Why would a Grexit be expensive?” was one of the top questions asked in Germany; the question in Greece was: “What will happen?”
The UK had the hots for the labour party in August, when more than 28 million people searched about the new leader of the labour party, Jeremy Corbyn. Following Labour’s crushing defeat in the UK general election in May 2015, Ed Miliband decided to step down as leader of the party. Miliband’s resignation triggered a Labour leadership contest with four MPs vying for the position; Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper, Jeremy Corbyn and Liz Kendall.
September bought the huge Volkswagen Emissions Scandal, with more than 13 million searches. The US Environmental Protection Agency accused Volkswagen of deliberately programming its popular diesel engines to only activate emissions controls during laboratory testing. The world took to Google to see how the recall would affect them, with the simple search of “Is my VW recalled?” 2015 saw other auto recalls as well, including Hyundai and Takata, but none were searched as much as Volkswagen.
The bridge between September and October housed the huge discussion of the Rugby World Cup, with a ground-breaking 246+ million searches! Starting in September, 20 of the world’s best Rugby Union teams competed for the cup in the tournament, in one of the biggest sporting events in the world. When the final whistle blew, All Blacks player Dan Carter was man of the match. The top viewed moment came at the end of the final, when the All Blacks’ Sonny Bill Williams gave his winner’s medal away to a young fan. The final saw fans in Australia and New Zealand desperately searching each other’s team.
Is there water on mars? That was the question that was asked throughout October with over 10 million searches. In late September, NASA scientists discovered water flowing across the surface of Mars. This was a potential breakthrough in both the search for life beyond Earth and human hopes to one day travel there. While Earth is still the most searched planet, searches for Mars peaked after NASA scientists revealed their findings. Are we all alone in the Universe? The discoveries led to a barrage of questions about life on the Red Planet.
Je suis solidaire. More than 897 million searches were made following the atrocity that happened within Paris in November. On Friday, November 13, a theatre, stadium, restaurant and cafe were attacked by terrorists, and the world desperately tried to find out if loved ones were safe and what had happened in the city of light. These coordinated attacks were the deadliest on French soil since World War II. As French security forces freed hostages from the Bataclan, the top viewed video showed the events live. The day saw the highest search interest for Paris in the history of Google.
Ah Star Wars. With more than 155 million searches, Star Wars topped the search engine ranks for December. With a release date of Dec. 18 and months of anticipation, the trailers for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens prompted a worldwide response of excitement and suspense leading up to the film. The first official trailer, unveiled in October, is one of the most-viewed movie trailers of all time. While search interest for ‘Star Wars’ spiked with the release of The Force Awakens trailer, the all-time high for Google searches around ‘Star Wars’ was in 2005 after ‘The Revenge of the Sith’ came out in theatres.
Whilst each month has had its respective breakdowns, there has been one topic that has been searched for all year round – the migrant crisis. With more than 23 million searches, the crisis has sparked discussions and protests up and down the continent. Europe’s refugee crisis arose through the rising number of refugees and migrants coming to the European Union from war-torn Syria. In April 2015 five boats carrying almost two thousand migrants to Europe sank in the Mediterranean Sea, with a combined death toll estimated at more than 1,200 people. While countries like Germany and Greece received the most refugees, the US, UK and other countries saw an increase in search interest in the migrant crisis. The questions asked on Google about the crisis revealed different attitudes around the world. On September 2, the body of three-year-old Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi was washed up on a beach near Bodrum in Turkey. The photographs galvanized the world to the effects of the crisis.