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Google's most popular search terms of 2015

Google's most popular search terms of 2015
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Google's most popular search terms of 2015

Google, the largest search engine by market share, has released its annual "year in search" list for 2015, with terrorist attacks in Paris, ex- NBA star Lamar Odom and action game Agar.io topping the list for most popular searches.

Following the deadly attacks witnessed in Paris last month, where a theater, stadium, restaurant and cafe were targeted by gunmen, some 897 million searches were logged as the world followed the events online.

Source: Google

The day saw the highest search history for Paris in the history of Google, according to the search engine, which was launched in 1998. Top questions asked included "what happened in Paris?", followed by "why did ISIS attack Paris?" and "is it safe to travel to Paris?".

The second largest search topic that Google revealed numbers for was the Oscars, with queries on winners, nominees and attendees topping lists which hit in excess of 400 million searches.

Top trends

The top "trending" general search of 2015 was Lamar Odom, the former NBA and reality TV star who was found unconscious in a Nevada brothel in October.

"Trending searches" refers to queries that held the highest spike in traffic over a sustained period of time in 2015. Google does not give specific search volumes for its top trending search list, instead providing statistics for some of the year's biggest moments or topics.

Most searched

The Rugby World Cup, the Cricket World Cup, the viral phenomenon known as the "dress" and more recently the soon to be released Star Wars movie, which so far year has garnered in excess of 155 million searches globally, were all among the most searched topics.

In financial news, the Greek debt crisis pushed searches for the "euro dollar" exchange rate to its highest level ever recorded during the summer. Search volumes for Greece, after the country held its referendum, hit around 35 million.

As Greece's economy faltered in June, China's stock market crashed with search interest in the Shanghai Stock Exchange higher than ever before.

Australia searched more for information on the Chinese economy on Google than any other country.

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Below is a list of the top "trending" global searches on Google in 2015:

1. Lamar Odom

2. Charlie Hebdo

3. Agar.io

4.Jurassic World

5. Paris

6. Furious 7

7. Fallout 4

8. Ronda Rousey

9. Caitlyn Jenner

10. American Sniper