After trillions and trillions of searches, data from Google Trends for 2018 tells us more than a few things. First, that people were deeply invested in the midterm elections. Second, they were really into the World Cup. And third, apparently everyone plays the video game "Fortnite."
1. “World Cup” was the most searched term in 2018, both globally and in the U.S.
France’s Paul Pogba celebrates with the trophy after winning the final match between France and Croatia at the 2018 soccer World Cup in the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, July 15, 2018.
(AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
AP Photo/Frank Augstein
2. Hurricane Florence
Floodwater from Hurricane Florence threatens homes in Dillon, S.C., Monday, Sept. 17, 2018.
(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
AP Photo/Gerald Herbert
3. Mac Miller
FILE — In this July 13, 2013, file photo, Rapper Mac Miller performs on his Space Migration Tour at Festival Pier in Philadelphia. A Los Angeles County coroner’s report released Monday, Nov. 5, 2018, named the 26-year-old Miller’s cause of death as “mixed toxicity,” saying cocaine, alcohol and the powerful opioid fentanyl were found in his system. Paramedics found Miller unresponsive in his Los Angeles home on Sept. 7 and declared him dead soon after.
(Photo by Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP, File)
Photo by Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP, File
4. Kate Spade
Fashion from the Kate Spade collection is modeled during Fashion Week, Friday Sept. 7, 2018 in New York.
(AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews
5. Anthony Bourdain
FILE — In this Sept. 11, 2016 file photo, Anthony Bourdain arrives at night two of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. Bourdain, who took his life in June, received several posthumous Emmy nominations on Thursday. Bourdain’s CNN series, “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown,” got six nods, including two personally for Bourdain as executive producer, host and writer. A seventh nod went to his “Explore Parts Unknown” on cnn.com.
(Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File
6. Black Panther
(It was also the most searched-for movie.)
This image released by Disney and Marvel Studios’ shows Chadwick Boseman in a scene from “Black Panther.”
(Marvel Studios/Disney via AP)
Marvel Studios/Disney via AP
7. Mega Millions results
A customer, who did not want to be identified, displays the $200.00 worth of Mega Millions tickets he bought at Downtown Plaza convenience store in Oklahoma City, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018.
(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki
8. Stan Lee
FILE — In this June 28, 2017 file photo, Stan Lee arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” A small, private funeral has been held to mourn Marvel Comics mogul Stan Lee, and his company is making more plans to memorialize him.
(Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File
9. Demi Lovato
She was also the most-searched person.
FILE — In this March 20, 2017 file photo, Demi Lovato participates in the BUILD Speaker Series to discuss “Smurfs: The Lost Village” in New York. Lovato has checked out of the hospital she was rushed to two weeks ago for a reported overdose. A person close to Lovato says she was released from Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles over the weekend. Lovato was hospitalized on July 24.
(Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File
10. Election results
Donna Anderson lets people know she voted at College Park Elementary School in Virginia Beach, Va., on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018.
(Steve Earley/The Virginian-Pilot via AP)
Steve Earley/The Virginian-Pilot via AP
Logan Paul was the most-searched actor.
FILE — In this Dec. 1, 2017, file photo, YouTube personality Logan Paul arrives at Jingle Ball in Inglewood, Calif. Paul caused a social media furor in January after he posted video of himself in a forest near Mount Fuji in Japan near what appeared to be a body hanging from a tree. YouTube suspended the 22-year-old at the time for violating its policies. But Paul returned, and has posted a video of himself using a Taser on dead rats. That spurred YouTube to temporarily suspend all ads from Paul’s channel after what it called a pattern of behavior unsuitable for advertisers.
(Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File
Tristan Thompson was the most-searched athlete.
Cleveland Cavaliers’ Tristan Thompson dunks during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Milwaukee Bucks Monday, Dec. 10, 2018, in Milwaukee.
(AP Photo/Morry Gash)
AP Photo/Morry Gash
“1980s fashion” was the most-searched fashion term.
In this Thursday, July 19, 2018 photo, designer Dapper Dan is seen at his atelier in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. Harlem designer Dapper Dan spent years in the 1980s with a client list that included the who’s who of hip-hop before legal issues over the clothes he was making got in the way. Now the fashion groundbreaker is back after more than two decades out of the public eye. He’s got a partnership with Gucci and the likes of superstar entertainer Beyonce among those wearing his designs.
(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Everyone was searching for “Fortnite” gifs too.
(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
“Bohemian Rhapsody” was the most=searched song.
FILE – In this July 20, 1986 file photo, Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury performs, in Germany. Queen guitarist Brian May says an asteroid in Jupiter’s orbit has been named after the band’s late frontman Freddie Mercury on what would have been his 70th birthday, it was reported on Monday, Sept. 5, 2016. May says the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Centre has designated an asteroid discovered in 1991, the year of Mercury’s death, as “Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury.”
(AP Photo/Marco Arndt, File)
FILE - In this April 17, 2007 file photo, exhibitors work on laptop computers in front of an illuminated sign of the Google logo at the industrial fair Hannover Messe in Hanover, Germany. According to numbers the company released Friday, Oct. 10, 2014, nearly 145,000 requests have been made in the European Union and four other countries by people looking to polish their online reputations. Thats an average of more than 1,000 requests a day since late May, when Google began accepting submissions to comply with a European court decision that ruled some embarrassing information about peoples lives can be scrubbed from search results. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer, File)(AP/Jens Meyer)
FILE - In this April 17, 2007 file photo, exhibitors work on laptop computers in front of an illuminated sign of the Google logo at the industrial fair Hannover Messe in Hanover, Germany. According to numbers the company released Friday, Oct. 10, 2014, nearly 145,000 requests have been made in the European Union and four other countries by people looking to polish their online reputations. Thats an average of more than 1,000 requests a day since late May, when Google began accepting submissions to comply with a European court decision that ruled some embarrassing information about peoples lives can be scrubbed from search results. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer, File)(AP/Jens Meyer)
WASHINGTON — After trillions and trillions of searches, data from Google Trends for 2018 tells us a few things. First, that people were deeply invested in the midterm elections. The top two “how to” Google searches were were “how to vote” and “how to register to vote.”
Second: They were really, really into the World Cup in Russia. Both globally and in the U.S. — whose team didn’t even qualify.
The fact that the World Cup was No. 1 in the U.S. surprised Google Search Trends Expert Molly VandenBerg.
“Obviously, the World Cup is a big moment,” VandenBerg told WTOP, “but it was surprising to me because of the fact that the U.S. didn’t qualify, so we didn’t necessarily directly participate, but to still see it trend and to see people really come together over that and get excited over that was pretty cool.”
Another turn for 2018 is that social media stars have become celebrities in their own right and can’t just be considered a fleeting part of a media platform.
For example, the most-searched person in the “actor” category was 23-year-old Logan Paul, a controversial figure who got his start on YouTube.
“I think that that’s pretty indicative of the time that we’re in, and that’s what we hope to accomplish with ‘Year in Searches’ — what made 2018 unique?” VandenBerg said.
Paul infamously posted video of him in a forest near Mount Fuji in Japan near what seemed to be a body hanging from a tree. YouTube says the images violated its policies and suspended the 22-year-old.
He afterward called the posting a “horrible lack of judgment.” He says he’ll “think twice … maybe three times” about what he posts.
The video was viewed some 6 million times before being removed from Paul’s YouTube channel, a verified account with more than 15 million subscribers.
While clamoring for details about an actor might seem frivolous to some, the top trending “how to” searches were focused on voting and the midterm elections.
“Which I also think is indicative of the time, with the midterm elections and the way that people are really engaging with that and figuring out how they can participate,” VandenBerg told WTOP.
People ask Google all sorts of questions.
“It’s interesting to see the types of questions people ask that span so many different topics,” VandenBerg explained.
Those topics run the gamut from voting to payment processor Ripple to disabling automatic updates and the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
Much of the data point to users wanting to track down actionable information.
“I think it depends on what exactly they’re searching for, but with things like ‘how to vote,’ I think that it’s a good indicator that people are looking to get out there and do it so they want to know how,” VandenBerg said.
One conclusion that can be gleaned from the broader digital landscape of Google search results is that people want to educate themselves. From basic fact-checking to–during March Madness–where Villanova University is located.
“That one was a little bit sore for me because I’m actually a Michigan fan and of course Villanova beat Michigan in that tournament this year,” VandenBerg laughed.
Still, the point remains. People “absolutely want to know, they want to be able to have that knowledge of what’s happening around them and be able to converse about it and have the latest,” VandenBerg said.
For example, “government shutdown” was a trending search specifically in the D.C. area.
“In the areas where people are, and the things that impact their day-to-day, they want to be able to keep up to date on it and make sure that they have the latest,” VandenBerg told WTOP.
“I think that Google is really the place where people come to be able to discover this information in so many different ways — from what the weather is outside to … how to vote, to these larger questions, to very quick answers,” she said. “There’s so much to uncover.”
How does Google see its role?
“Our goal is to be able to surface the most relevant information that we can for folks so that way they can be informed, so that way they can go about their day feeling like they know what’s going on and can engage in society,” VandenBerg explained. “So that’s kind of what I see us doing — being able to provide that information and surface relevant results as much as we can.”
Then there’s the shockingly popular Fortnite, which Google data show was trending in three separate categories: video games, gifs and “how to get boogie down emote.”
Apparently everyone plays Fortnite.
Well, almost.
“This has been the one struggle of my job this year — I do not play Fortnite, and I’m trying really hard to understand, but I do know that it’s captured a lot of people’s attention,” VandenBerg told WTOP.
For the record, the author doesn’t play Fortnite either.
“We’re in it together, I appreciate that,” VandenBerg said with a laugh.
William Vitka is a Digital Writer/Editor for WTOP.com. He's been in the news industry for over a decade. Before joining WTOP, he worked for CBS News, Stuff Magazine, The New York Post and wrote a variety of books—about a dozen of them, with more to come.
