Culture

20 Years of Top Trending Google Searches

Published

2 years ago

October 15, 2022

Carmen Ang

Graphics/Design:

Nick Routley

Infographic showing images of search trends on Google over the past 20 years

20 Years of Top Trending Google Searches

For decades, Google search has been a go-to source for many when looking up directions, keeping up with the news, or seeking information on new and unfamiliar topics.

Today, Google processes about 3.5 billion searches per day. Because of its dominant market share, Google holds a vast archive of keyword searches that, when analyzed, provide an interesting glimpse into the key themes that have captured the world’s attention over the years.

This graphic, using data from Google Trends, goes back 20 years and highlights some of the top keyword searches since 2001.

Our editorial team dug through hundreds of top trending search terms from global and U.S. data and hand-selected their top picks, which are featured in the graphic above.

Trending vs. Volume

Before diving in, it’s worth emphasizing how top trending searches differ from popular searches, which are measured by sheer volume.

Trending searches are terms that have recently spiked in popularity. They focus on growth rather than total volume, and in this dataset, trending terms gauge year-over-year growth.

A good example is Donald Trump, who popped up in the news cycle during the 2016 presidential campaign. After the election, interest in Trump remained high. But his name doesn’t pop up on the Google trends list after 2017, since by that point, search volume for Trump had plateaued.

What are the most popular Google search terms, by volume? To be honest, they’re slightly less interesting than the top trending searches — YouTube is number one, followed by Facebook, then WhatsApp web.

The Globalization of Search Trends

The people and topics featured in Google’s top trends lists evolves as time goes on, reflecting broader adoption of the internet (and Google Search) around the world over time. Early themes are tied to mainstream U.S. pop culture and tech trends.

As time goes on, social media and smartphone adoption increase the granularity and volume of searches, resulting in top trends that are more participatory, diverse, and global in nature.

One final variable to keep in mind is that Google itself began to share more detailed search highlights with each passing year.

Two Decades of Google Searches: Macro Insights

Now that we’ve explained what trending searches actually measure, let’s dig into some of the key themes that have emerged over the last two decades of Google searches.

① People Love Sports

Over the last 20 years, sports have remained a continuous trend.

Every four years, the World Cup shows up as a top trending keyword across the globe. The Olympics also makes a regular appearance, along with Olympic athletes like Michael Phelps and McKayla Maroney.

Although the U.S. dominates the list, particularly when it comes to athletes, there’s still a good variety of international sports that go viral, especially as time goes on. In the last two years, cricket, rugby, and soccer have all made the top five trending lists.

② The Emergence of Celebrity 2.0

Over time, you can also see a transition from the conventional celebrity to celebrity 2.0, also known as the social media celebrity.

In the early 2000s, pop culture icons like Britney Spears, Eminem, and Jennifer Lopez flooded the trending searches, and traditional media forms like TV shows and Movies dominated the mass media categories.

But by 2011, YouTube stars like Rebecca Black started to make their way on the trending search lists. And in 2014, Meme emerged as a top trending category.

This transition nods to a larger shift in media, as digital has gradually overtaken traditional media as the dominant form of entertainment.

③ Natural Disasters are Top of Mind

Natural Disasters are a key trend throughout this data set as well.

Hurricanes are a particularly trendy word, showing up almost half the time—in eight of the 20 years. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina ranked second in the most searched category across the globe.

It continued to gain global attention—by 2006, Hurricane Katrina was still in the top five trending news searches.

Dig Deeper into Trending Google Searches

Our team enjoyed sifting through 20 years of Google data, and we hope you enjoyed this blast from the past too. If you’d like to dive deeper, you can explore Google’s full dataset here.

Happy searching.

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Culture

Ranked: America’s Most Popular Beers, by Generation

We visualize the results of a YouGov survey that determined the most popular beers among each U.S. generation.

Published

3 weeks ago

March 30, 2024

Marcus Lu

America’s Most Popular Beers, by Generation

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

In this graphic we’ve visualized the most popular beers for each U.S. generation as of Q4 2023, according to a consumer survey conducted by YouGov.

The “popularity” metric represents the % of people who had a positive opinion of that beer. Note that YouGov surveys are conducted with a representative sample of 1,500 respondents.

Overview: Millennials

U.S. millennials appear to favor foreign beers, with the top five spots taken by Dutch (Heineken) or Mexican beers (Modelo, Corona).

Beer	Popularity (%)
🇳🇱 Heineken	60
🇲🇽 Modelo	59
🇲🇽 Corona	59
🇲🇽 Corona Extra	58
🇲🇽 Corona Light	58
🇺🇸 White Claw	56
🇮🇪 Guinness	55
🇧🇪 Stella Artois	55
🇺🇸 Budweiser	54
🇺🇸 Miller	54

While not exactly a beer, White Claws (which have a similar alcohol content) claimed sixth place. Hard seltzers have become very popular in recent years due to their variety of flavors, attractive packaging, and relatively low amount of carbs and calories.

Overview: Gen X

Gen X also has a strong preference for foreign beers, particularly Guinness (fun fact: Over 31 million Americans claim to be of Irish descent).

Beer	Popularity (%)
🇮🇪 Guinness	57
🇳🇱 Heineken	49
🇲🇽 Corona	49
🇲🇽 Modelo	47
🇺🇸 Samuel Adams	47
🇧🇪 Stella Artois	46
🇲🇽 Corona Extra	45
🇲🇽 Corona Light	44
🇺🇸 Blue Moon	43
🇺🇸 Miller	41

Two American beers that weren’t on Millennials’ top 10 list are Samuel Adams and Blue Moon.

Samuel Adams is the flagship brand of the Boston Beer Company, named after U.S. Founding Father Samuel Adams. On the other hand, Blue Moon is a Belgian-style witbier brewed by Molson Coors.

Overview: Baby Boomers

Boomers’ top 10 favorite beers are similar to Gen X, with a few key differences. One is the absence of Modelo, which ranked second and fourth for Millennials and Gen X, respectively.

Modelo (which became America’s best-selling beer in 2023) has focused its advertising efforts on sports, which may not reach Boomers as effectively as younger generations.

Beer	Popularity (%)
🇮🇪 Guinness	49
🇳🇱 Heineken	48
🇲🇽 Corona	48
🇺🇸 Samuel Adams	46
🇺🇸 Coors	43
🇺🇸 Miller	38
🇺🇸 Michelob Light	38
🇺🇸 Miller Lite	37
🇲🇽 Dos Equis	37
🇧🇪 Stella Artois	37

An interesting pick for Boomers is Dos Equis, which is produced by Heineken-owned Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery. The brand gained popularity for its “most interesting man in the world” commercials, which ran from 2006 to 2018.