Google has released its list of most searched-for terms on the search engine in 2014, offering a glimpse into what people around the world cared or wanted to learn more about this year. Of course, the lists vary from location to location, as different people in different societies care about different things. While there are many overlapping terms, what people in the whole world, the U.S., Illinois and Chicago and other Illinois cities searched for are different.
The lists are compiled from top “rising” search terms–words or phrases that have burst onto the scene in a new way in the past year. For example, there likely are a lot of people searching for the words “Barack Obama” on Google, but they likely have been searching those words for years. Google’s rising lists are more concerned with what is new in popularity.
The most-searched term in the world this year, says Google, was Robin Williams, followed by key words of other big stories. Click on the terms to see their popularity trends. From Google:
The top-searched in the country this year was also Robin Williams, and while the rest of the list closely resembled the global list, the search terms were also more U.S.-centric.
The lists in Chicago and Illinois as a whole differ a little from the list for the world, of course. And even though Chicago is in Illinois, the two lists do differ between each other. Of course, given the relationship between the two locales, the lists between Chicago and Illinois as a whole are more similar than either list is to the list of the whole world.
Without further ado, the top-searched terms on Google in Illinois in 2014:
The top-searched terms on Google in Chicago in 2014:
It seems that everyone in Illinois was interested in dangerous viruses, social media networks, technology and world sporting events, though to different degrees. The main differences were in searches for singer Ariana Grande and Ventra cards in Chicago and searches for the Disney movie Frozen and weather in Illinois as a whole. Happy searching!
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