THE MOST SEARCHED-for term on Google in Ireland in 2017 was ‘Hurricane Ophelia’.
Google has just released lists of what we were all searching for over the past 12 months.
The most powerful storm to ever travel this fast east in the Atlantic Ocean hit Ireland on 16 October. It left thousands without power, caused a national no-school day and halted all public transport.
The intensity of the storm and the drama that it caused across the country is evidence as it hit the number one spot in the list of Ireland’s top searches listed by Google for the year just passed.
Meanwhile, US president Donald Trump climbed from fourth place in 2016 to take second place in this year’s overall ranking. As a result of Trump’s sometimes outlandish outbursts of tweets during his first year in presidency, the Irish were left googling “What is covfefe?” and “What is DACA?”.
The top trending searched in Ireland were:
1. Hurricane Ophelia
2. Donald Trump
3. Ireland v Denmark
4. 13 Reasons Why
5. Fidget Spinner
6. Hurricane Irma
7. Bus Éireann Strike
8. McGregor vs Mayweather
9. Eurovision
10. Harvey Weinstein
The top searched-for sporting events in Ireland were the Irish vs Denmark soccer match, Conor McGregor’s MMA fight with Floyd Mayweather, the Cheltenham races and the Confederations Cup.
In terms of movies, the international hype around the global phenomenon that was La La Land appears to have passed Ireland by, with the multi-Oscar-winning film only reaching fourth place.
Instead, our favourite movie search of the year was Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, followed by horror movie It. Beauty and the Beast finished off the top three.
Trump was the most searched for man, while Hollywood’s Harvey Weinstein, who was at the heart of a string of sexual assault allegations, was the only other male to enter the list. No woman made an appearance on this year’s list.
Two of Google’s most popular search terms are “What is?” and “How to?”.
The top five “What is?” searches were: antikythera mechanism, a hurricane, a bitcoin, a pangolin, and a tracker mortgage.
The top five “How to?” searches were: make slime, watch McGregor vs Mayweather, lose weight, check credit on Three, and make pancake mix.
The most popular recipes searched for this year included spaghetti bolognese, chilli con carne, beef stroganoff, guacamole, and pavlova.
Fionnuala Meehan, head of Google Ireland said: “Each year, Google’s Year in Search provides a fascinating snapshot into what we cared about collectively as a country over the preceding 12 months, and this year is no different.
“Hurricane Ophelia was obviously the big event of 2017 and Irish people turned to Google as a trusted source of vital updates all throughout the incident.”
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