Google's Top Searches of 2018: Dead Celebrities, World Cup, and Meghan Markle
*By Carlo Versano*
What do Stan Lee, Logan Paul, and the royal wedding have in common?
They were among the most Googled terms of 2018.
Justin Burr, the search trends expert at Google, gave Cheddar some insight into the top Google trends of the year.
Google searches can provide one of the more unvarnished looks into our own psyches ーand the annual compendium of what we searched for often does a better job of capturing a moment in time, or particular mood, than any poll or survey.
As is often the case, celebrity deaths made up the bulk of the top Google searches of 2018, Burr said. Of the top 10 searches this year, seven were for celebrities who had died: Avicii, Mac Miller, Stan Lee, Anthony Bourdain, XXXTentacion, Kate Spade, and Stephen Hawking. The other three: "Black Panther," Meghan Markle, and the World Cup. (The World Cup won the distinction of being the top search in both the U.S. and around the world.)
"People always go to Google when there are deaths," Burr said, "to understand who they were and what they did."
In news searches, the Cup once again reigned supreme, followed by Hurricane Florence, the Mega Millions jackpot, the royal wedding, and election results.
Burr said Google saw a huge spike in queries for "how to vote" leading up to the midterm election, which would jibe with the results ー which showed turnout was at a 50-year high.
In terms of individuals, the most-searched names: Meghan Markle (again), Demi Lovato, Sylvester Stallone, Logan Paul, and Khloé Kardashian. Tristan Thompson was the most-searched athlete, and the Cleveland Cavaliers was the most-searched sports team.
"There's always tangential relations between the different search results," Burr noted.
See more of the top trends of the year at [google.com/2018](google.com/2018).
President Donald Trump said he has decided to lower his combined tariff rates on imports of Chinese goods to 47% after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on curbing fentanyl trafficking.
Universal Music Group and AI platform Udio have settled a copyright lawsuit and will collaborate on a new music creation and streaming platform. The companies announced on Wednesday that they reached a compensatory legal settlement and new licensing agreements. These agreements aim to provide more revenue opportunities for Universal's artists and songwriters. The rise of AI song generation tools like Udio has disrupted the music streaming industry, leading to accusations from record labels. This deal marks the first since Universal and others sued Udio and Suno last year. Financial terms of the settlement weren't disclosed.
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global, breaks down September’s CPI print and inflation trends, explaining what it means for markets.
