Google’s Year In Search 2024 Proves It’s Not Me Who’s Out Of Contact – It’s The Kids Who Are Wrong
- Google has released its list of the things we searched for most in 2024
- Sports, American elections and music artists play a major role
- The list makes me feel like an old man out of touch
Forget Spotify Wrapped, Google just shared its Year In Search 2024, highlighting what people have been searching for this year – and I’ve never felt older and more confused.
Google Year In Search 2024 doesn’t highlight all the things you’ve personally searched for (that would be… nice), but it shows the trending searches worldwide, and you can also see what people are searching for in your location, just in case you want another reason to avoid your neighbors.
From the US elections to top movies, songs and the world’s best museums, Google’s Year In Search 2024 gives us a glimpse of what grabbed people’s attention this year – and it makes me feel as out-of-touch as a caveman an AI conference.
According to the reportthe most popular thing people have searched for this year (via Google of course, so apologies to the five people using Bing – keep reaching for that rainbow, guys!) is… Copa América.
Now I seem to remember (I’m not googling it, I don’t want to add to the statistics) that this is some kind of sporting event, possibly combining balls, feet and nets. Unfortunately, since I have no interest in sports, the number one search topic means nothing to me. Let’s look at number two: the UEFA European Championship. Oh.
Positions three and four also seem to be about sport, this time cricket, which (fun fact!) I don’t like either.
When it comes to news, the number one search is the US election, which makes a lot more sense – it’s something that has huge ramifications around the world, after all – and number two is ‘excessive heat’.
This year we’ve seen (and continue to see) some pretty extreme weather, and it’s clear that people are concerned about that. There’s also a chance that some people looking for that might have a gaming PC.
As for the people we’re looking for, Donald Trump was number one, followed by Princess Catherine and then Kamala Harris. The current American president, with Joe Biden just in the top five.
That’s entertainment
When it comes to entertainment searches and general pop culture questions, I get seriously lost.
Of the five most searched actors in 2024 (Katt Williams, Pawan Kalyan, Adam Brody, Ella Purnell, Hina Khan) I only know Ella Purnell, thanks to the excellent TV series Fallout (which is number two in the most searched TV shows) .
I thought I knew Adam Brody too, which gave me hope that I’m not as out of touch as I feared, but it turns out I mixed him up with Adrien Brody, which proves that I am indeed chronically out of touch.
I did better with movies, having watched three of the top five and heard about the others, and I also watched four of the five most searched for TV shows.
As for songs…I have no idea.
I honestly couldn’t tell you what those sound like, and to be honest, Bling-Bang-Bang-Born by someone or something called Creepy Nuts just sounds made up.
Time for another fun fact! Bling-Bang-Bang-Born by Creepy Nuts is the second most searched for song when it comes to searching by humming. That’s right, Google can make a decent effort to identify a song you’re humming, which is useful if you find yourself humming something and don’t know what it is.
Another fun fact: humming should be banned.
Food for search
Google also revealed the food and drink recipes we’re looking for, and again I’m largely confused:
What are Olympic Chocolate Muffins? Who is Tini, and why is their mac and cheese so good? I’m glad it has mango pickle in it though. As a curry-loving Brit, it’s good to see perhaps the best condiment ever getting some love.
Finally, there is gaming. I thought I would have a chance here since I love playing games, but unfortunately not. I heard three of the top five, but I played a big zero.
While I probably shouldn’t calculate how cool and hip I am by how many search terms I recognize (after all, I’m the kind of person who uses the word “hip” in 2024), Google’s Year in Search is a fascinating glimpse into what people are into are interested – and a terrible reminder that I used to be into it, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. What I’m with isn’t it, and what is it, it seems weird and scary to me.