Google releases its 2023 "Year in Search" results
Google’s released its annual Year in Search results for 2023. This year has seen some complaining about the dominant search engine’s search results quality, thanks in part to: AI-generated garbage flooding the internet; Google’s own AI push; search engine optimization (SEO) abuse by some sites; etc. However, it’s still interesting to see what’s popular among the internet at large. Google this year is also celebrating their 25th anniversary.
Below is a look at some of Google’s Year in Search lists. For some reason, Google’s dropped the general “search terms” list this year, instead favoring various categories (news, movies, etc.). As such, I’ve looked at a few different lists this year, versus previous years.
Top 10 sports teams (global)
Inter Miami CF
Los Angeles Lakers
Al-Nassr FC
Manchester City FC
Miami Heat
Texas Rangers
Al Hilal SFC
Borussia Dortmund
India national cricket team
Boston Bruins
Unsurprisingly, the most popular sports teams reflect the world’s most popular sport, soccer. Soccer (or “association football”) makes up five of the 10 slots. That said, #1 stands out---Miami’s MLS team, Inter Miami CF, gained fame this year when one of international soccer’s top stars, Lionel Messi, signed on to play for the team.
Elsewhere, the Lakers and Heat got attention; presumably LeBron James for the former, and the Heat playing in the 2023 NBA Finals for the latter (despite losing to the Denver Nuggets). The Boston Bruins NHL hockey team also made the list, though I can’t think of a reason why (even after a brief Google search). And, of course, India’s cricket team made the list, between India’s large population and cricket’s popularity there.
Top 10 movies (US)
Barbie
Oppenheimer
Sound of Freedom
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Creed III
John Wick: Chapter 4
Five Nights at Freddy's
Cocaine Bear
No surprise the top two results are from this summer’s two biggest films, “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” (as part of the “Barbenheimer” double feature craze). Most of the other results reflect what was popular this year, or caught attention. “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which also appeared in last year’s top 10 list, is this year’s Oscar winner for Best Picture.
“Sound of Freedom” is an independent film (with ties to evangelical Christian groups) that caught attention at the box office, largely thanks to said religious groups buying tickets en masse. That’s despite poor-to-mixed reviews, plus ties to right-wing conspiracy theories.
Top 10 TV shows (US)
The Last of Us
Ginny & Georgia
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story
Daisy Jones & The Six
Wednesday
That '90s Show
Kaleidoscope
Beef
The Idol
The Fall of the House of Usher
The most-searched TV shows reflected much of the most-watched Netflix TV shows, despite a lack of social media buzz about some of them. Netflix dominates much of this list, unsurprisingly. Topping the list is “The Last of Us,” a video game adaptation made for (HBO) Max.
Google’s top search results over the past 25 years
Google also released a YouTube video listing some of the most searched terms (in various categories) over the past 25 years. I tried finding a text version of the list, but there doesn’t seem to be one; the only options I found were oddly incomplete. Still, listing some of the more interesting results:
Most searched superhero: Spider-Man. It doesn’t seem surprising Spidey was the most searched hero. He’s had a long lost of popular movies, TV shows, and video games since the early 2000s. (Yes, comics too, even if the general public mainly associates superheroes with movies/TV and not comics at this point.)
Most searched cartoon: “SpongeBob SquarePants.” Given “SpongeBob” is probably the most popular cartoon created in the past 25 years (it debuted in 1999), it makes sense SpongeBob would rank this high.
Most searched athlete: Cristiano Ronaldo. Soccer’s the world’s most popular sport, and Ronaldo’s also popular.
Most searched movement: “Black Lives Matter.”
Most searched parade: an Asia LGBTQ pride parade.
Most searched queen of rock and roll: Tina Turner.
Most searched world record: track star Usain Bolt.
"Google Sign" by drewtarvin is licensed under CC BY 2.0 (Flickr / cropped from original)