2016 Google Year in Search: What did Ireland search this year?

14 Dec 2016

Person holding a Donald Trump sign. Image: Olya Steckel/Shutterstock

It has been the year that many have said they want to forget, but Google’s annual list of trending searches of the year has shown we searched for quite a mixed bag of topics.

The 2016 Google Year in Search was always going to be an interesting one, given that the western world has seen some of the biggest political shocks in the last few decades, an increase in deadly terrorist attacks and the deaths of many loved famous faces.

However, Irish Google users have bucked the trend of searching for some of the more negative stories, as ‘Euro 2016’ has been ranked the most trending search of the year.

This was in no small part to that famous night in Lille when Robbie Brady headed the ball into the Italian net, sending Ireland into the knockout round of the European Championships for the first time.

Elsewhere, only in the searches for the Olympics (sixth) and the famous win for Ireland over New Zealand in rugby (10th) did sport feature in the top 10.

Second in the list might come as no surprise to those who spent the best part of a summer walking around glued to their phones in the hunt for augmented reality Pokémon.

The mobile game Pokémon Go has been one of the biggest gaming hits of recent years, and despite it not being as played as much as it once was, the game has reinvigorated an interest in wanting to ‘catch ’em all’.

Not much interest in Irish elections

When it comes to political searches, there was only going to be two overwhelming trending searches of the year.

But surprisingly in Ireland, the election of Donald Trump only ranked fourth in the top 10, just surpassing Brexit in fifth place.

The Irish 2016 general election meanwhile seemingly failed to captivate the majority of people, not even making the top 10. Joan Burton, Lucinda Creighton and Gerry Adams were among some of the most searched politicians in Ireland this year.

Of course, the ream of stars from TV, film and music who passed away this year came as a shock to many, with David Bowie being the most searched this year in third place, while Prince was ranked seventh.

You can find the full list of searches below:

Google searches

Google searches 1

Google searches 2

Person holding a Donald Trump sign. Image: Olya Steckel/Shutterstock

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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