Headlines: Ebola, Malaysia Airlines, Ice Bucket Challenge and more
- The Ebola outbreak was one of the top stories of the year for obvious reasons, starting in Guinea before spreading to other countries and becoming one of the most searched for topics of 2014.
Related searches included ebola symptoms', Hazmat suit', ebola spread', ebola cure' and world health organization' as well as Ebola bats' thought to be the natural hosts of the illness and the 1995 movie Outbreak.
- More than 200 million people searched for mh370', the Malaysia Airlines flight that went missing in March. The term Malaysia airlines' became 2014's ninth-highest spike globally.
- Other conflicts around the world occupied Google's most searched lists, including those in Nigeria, Ukraine and Gaza following their respective crises. The Islamic State (ISIS), Ukraine's president Viktor Yanukovych and the kidnapping of 273 Nigerian girls were also among the most popular stories.
- Following the overwhelming popularity of the ASL (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) Ice Bucket Challenge videos from celebrities and the general public alike, the term now has more than 90 million search results and was a huge part of raising awareness for the condition.
Entertainment & culture: Conchita Wurst, Frozen, Game of Thrones and more
- Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto dominated entertainment search terms this year, with Leto beating out his Dallas Buyers Club co-star following the pair's dual wins at the Oscars. Searches for his acceptance speech reportedly soared, along with memes related to the actor and musician.
Searches for the film also jumped 8x after the awards ceremony in March and McConaughey gained popularity with searchers with Interstellar and True Detective, though many of them also searched for interstellar explained'.
- Idina Menzel's popularity rose massively in 2014 following her role in Frozen and the accompanying song, Let it Go, but one of the most searched terms related to the actress was actually travoltify your name', after John Travolta bungled his speech at the Oscars and called her by the wrong name.
- Jennifer Lawrence beat out other actors like Leonardo DiCaprio and Angelina Jolie in searches during 2014, in which she won a Golden Globe. The Oscars also caused us to search for the subject of 12 Years a Slave, Solomon Northup more than actor portraying him, Chiwetel Ejiofor.
- The 59th Eurovision Song Contest also got a boost from Austria's Conchita Wurst, who helped the event inspire over 120 million searches a new record. After the win, she became one of the most searched stars of 2014, with LGBT rights' also spiking following the performance.
- Game of Thrones was the most searched for TV show, followed closely by Sherlock, Orange is the New Black and True Detective. Big Bang Theory's Sheldon Cooper and Game of Thrones' Jon Snow were among the most searched for characters.
- Destiny, the most expensive game ever made, was beaten by both 2048 and Flappy Bird in searches. Card games rose in popularity this year also, beating mobile games the winners of 2013 in searches.
- Loom bands dominated the year, with loom band designs' and loom band tutorial' both rising 3x. We also searched for games for girls' more than games for kids', highlighting the ongoing disparity.
- Serial, a true crime podcast, became a phenomenon towards the end of the year, with the names of the accuser and convicted both swelling.
- Pharrel, his huge hit Happy and his unique Vivienne Westwood-designed headgear were all popular searches this year, with plenty of tributes, homages and parodies hitting the web.
- Robin Williams, who passed way in August, inspired searches such as depression', depression symptoms' and depression test' following his tragic death.
Searches for Shirley Temple and Joan Rivers spiked 14x following their deaths, with famous phrases and event in their lives rising to the top of search terms in 2014. Famous quotes from Maya Angelou also rose 21x in May after her death.
The deaths of cultural icons such as musicians Frankie Knuckles, Pete Seeger and Bobby Womack, fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, painter and sculptor H R Giger, voiceover artist Hal Douglas and journalist and model Peaches Geldof led us to search for their past works and tributes.
