Earlier this month, Microsoft released its list of the most searched topics on Bing in 2013. Today, it"s Google"s turn to offer its own lineup of the top search strings on its site and its number one topic of 2013 is not a huge surprise: Nelson Mandela.
The man who helped to bring down South Africa"s apartheid government and later became its President died earlier this month. In a post on Google"s official blog it states, "Global search interest in the former President of South Africa was already high this year, and after his passing, people from around the world turned to Google to learn more about Madiba and his legacy."
The top 10 list includes two other people who died earlier this year, actors Paul Walker and Cory Monteith, along with tech products like the iPhone 5s, the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the PlayStation 4:
- Nelson Mandela
- Paul Walker
- iPhone 5s
- Cory Monteith
- Harlem Shake
- Boston Marathon
- Royal Baby
- Samsung Galaxy s4
- PlayStation 4
- North Korea
The Google Zeitgeist page goes into more detail on 2013"s top search results with an interactive way to view the top 100 items. There"s even a Google Earth-like 3D map of the globe that lets users check out which topics were searched for the most in specific cities on each day of the year. For example, the globe shows that the top searched item in Charlotte, North Carolina on Google on September 17th was Grand Theft Auto V.
Source: Google