Google's logo at the garage where the company was founded on Google's 15th anniversary in Menlo Park, Calif., on Sept. 26, 2013.
The Boston Marathon bombings and the 16-day government shutdown top the “trending events in the U.S.” section of Google’s 13th annual Zeitgeist collection, a round-up of the people, places, and events that garnered the most attention on search this year.
Not surprisingly, tragedies in Boston, Moore, Okla., Syria, and the Philippines dominate the list, in addition to ongoing coverage of the controversy in Syria and the Zimmerman trial verdict. Cultural milestones in the ranking include the selection of Pope Francis, the birth of Prince George (the Royal Baby), and Floyd “Money” Mayweather’s victory over Canelo Alvarez in a boxing match that generated $150 million in U.S. pay-per-view revenue, thus becoming “the highest-grossing pay-per-view of all time,” according to Showtime.
According to Google, “The ‘trending’ queries are the searches that had the highest amount of traffic over a sustained period in 2013 as compared to 2012.”
(MORE: Google’s Top 10 Trending News Stories of 2013)
MTV’s Video Music Awards came in third, presumably because people were searching for video of Miley Cyrus’s viral twerking performance, let alone a decent definition of what twerking is.
Here is the full list:
- Boston Marathon
- Government Shutdown
- VMAs
- Moore, Oklahoma Tornado
- Royal Baby
- Zimmerman Trial
- Typhoon Haiyan
- New Pope
- Syria Conflict
- Mayweather vs. Canelo
(MORE: The Top 10 Googled Images of 2013)
And here’s Google’s similar list of trending events globally:
- Boston Marathon
- Typhoon Haiyan
- Government Shutdown
- 2014 FIFA World Cup
- Chinese New Year
- Australian Open
- Eurovision Song Contest
- Wimbledon
- Syria Conflict
- EuroBasket (Major basketball tournament in Europe; France won in 2013.)