Euro 2012, the Olympics and Whitney Houston top Google’s most popular searches

GOOGLE has released its most popular searches of 2012, with sporting events, musicians and a well-known infectious song all appearing in the top searches of the past 12 months.

In the ten categories, Scotland enjoys relative exposure with Edinburgh placing ninth and fourth respectively in travel hotspots and UK locations, singer Emeli Sande at number four in most searched musicians and Andy Murray topping the list of most-searched UK Olympians.

Top ten searches

In overall searches, tickets for London’s 2012 Olympics was beaten into second place by, somewhat surprisingly, Euro 2012. NatWest online made an appearance after a technical glitch in June saw thousands of UK customers unable to access their bank accounts online, whilst infectious ‘K-pop’ song Gangnam Style is surprisingly low at number ten.

The late Whitney Houston, who died earlier this year came third, whilst the Duchess of Cambridge was the fourth most-searched topic overall. Apple’s iPad 3 is at number eight, after a raft of interest just before the tablet’s release was announced.

1. Euro 2012

2. Tickets to Olympics

3. Whitney Houston

4. Kate Middleton

5. April Jones

6. Netflix

7. NatWest online

8. iPad 3

9. Gary Barlow

10. Gangnam Style

Other categories

Perhaps unsurprisingly, both Whitney Houston and Kate Middleton are in the top 10 celebrities, having already been listed in the top searches overall. X Factor judge and singer Gary Barlow joins them in both lists, placing ninth and third respectively whilst the London 2012 Olympics’ golden girl Jessica Ennis is at number five. Footballer Fabrice Muamba, whose heart stopped for nearly an hour after he collapsed during a match between Bolton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur is at number six, with the late Michael Clarke Duncan, star of The Green Mile, at number seven.

Any Murray and teenage diver Tom Daley are ahead of Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah as the most popular Olympians whilst Korean musician Psy’s Gangnam Style and Carly Rae Jepsen’s maddeningly catchy Call me Maybe lead the song searches.

The most popular sport searches throw up some surprising results however, with synchronised swimming and murderball (wheelchair rugby) and wheelchair basketball making up the top three, with no place for sports such as golf, football and tennis.

Karl Lagerfeld, who brought Chanel’s annual fashion show to Linlithgow Palace last week is pipped to the most popular fashion designer crown by Stella McCartney, and there’s a perhaps unexpected entry for Marks and Spencer at number seven.

The searches seem to echo, in places, trending topics on Twitter, for example the Olympics or Euro 2012, but Google also serves its purpose as the Internet font of knowledge as relatively unknown personalities or phenomenons. Little known musician Psy was signed by Justin Bieber’s manager earlier this year off the back of the success of Gangnam Style. The notion of the “power of Google” may not be as ludicrous as we once thought.