Investigating the Most Searched Terms on the Internet in 2023 - 'Barbie' and the Conflict between Israel and Hamas

A cursor is shown hovering over Google's search engine page in a file photo taken in Portland, Oregon, in 2018. On December the 11th, 2023, Google published their "Year in Search", a collection of the most sought-after global topics of the year. These ranged from popular culture events, to the passing of notable individuals and international events of significance. This was reported by the Associated Press.

Looking ahead to 2023, your Google search history has been revealed. (AP)

It's been a momentous year for the world. On Monday, the Silicon Valley tech giant published the "Year in Search," a list of the top searches from 2023. This encompassed a range of events, from the pop culture phenomenon that was Barbenheimer to the death of famous people and tragic stories that had an impact around the world.

In 2023, Google's global data revealed that the Israel-Hamas conflict was the biggest news trend. Queries related to the sinking of the Titanic-bound submersible in June and the enormous earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria in February also featured prominently.

This past year, Damar Hamlin, a safety for the Buffalo Bills of the NFL, was the top trending person on Google searches. He had a near-fatal cardiac arrest during a January game, but managed to come back from it triumphantly. Following him in the trending searches was actor Jeremy Renner, who was in a serious snowplow accident at the start of 2023. Sadly, the late Matthew Perry and Tina Turner were among those who led searches in the famous people who passed away category.

This year, "Barbie" was the top trending movie on Google searches, followed by the Barbenheimer-co-star "Oppenheimer" and the Indian thriller "Jawan." As for television, "The Last of Us," "Wednesday," and "Ginny and Georgia" made up the top three trending shows in the world of entertainment for 2023.

Yoasobi's "アイドル (Idol)" was the most popular song that was searched on Google. Coming in next in the rankings was Jason Aldean's "Try That In A Small Town" -- which enjoyed a surge in popularity this summer due to some controversy -- and in third was Shakira and Bizarrap's "Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53".

2023 saw Google users around the world searching for a variety of topics, from the top trending recipe, bibimbap, to Inter Miami CF, the new home of Lionel Messi. In the U.S. in particular, people were asking why eggs, Taylor Swift tickets, and sriracha were seemingly so expensive. Additionally, "rizz," which was recently declared Oxford's Word of the Year, was a popular search for slang definition inquiries.

Google has an archive of "Year in Search" data, covering global trends and lists that are country-specific, and this can be accessed online. For the current year, the company gathered its search data between January 1st and November 27th.

As 2023 comes to a close, Google isn't the only one to release yearly data - from Merriam-Webster's word of the year to Apple Music's top songs and albums, there have been many reports on online activity. Just last week, Wikipedia made public its list of top searches with its article about ChatGPT topping the charts.

In celebration of Google's 25th anniversary, the search engine has divulged its "all time" top queries by category. Since 2004 (when global search data was made accessible), Beyonce has been the most sought after Grammy recipient, Cristiano Ronaldo the most sought after athlete, and the "Harry Potter" cast the most sought after movie or TV cast.

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