That collective squee you hear is the sound of millions of fan girls cooing over Britain’s telegenic, over-gelled quintet, which in the words of TIME’s Melissa Locker have “ushered in a new era of chart-topping boy bands.” Their first album, 2011’s Up All Night, debuted at No. 1 and spawned a slew of hit singles — as did this year’s followup, Take Me Home. The boys in the band — Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson — got together during the British version of Simon Cowell’s reality show The X Factor, and have studiously cultivated a ‘nice guy’ image that appeals to zealous young “directioners” (And, in Styles’ case, to recent girlfriend Taylor Swift). Earlier this year the group caused traffic jams in midtown Manhattan as hundreds of fans swarmed the area around Rockefeller Center to catch a glimpse of their idols at a Today Show taping. As one mom waiting on line told TIME, “Instead of drinking or smoking pot, they’re following the boys on Twitter and Facebook. So what?”
Google Zeitgeist 2012: The World’s Most Searched for People of the Year
Half of the Internet is gossip and pornography, Yogi Berra might say, and the other 90% is just pictures of beautiful famous people. Here are the most searched-for celebs of 2012, according to Google Zeitgeist.