2014 - What Our Search Queries Say About Us

As we say goodbye to 2014, we see a glut of lists. Everyone is busy compiling top trends, top films, top new stories, top songs, top books, top theater, top celebrities and even top Google searches. Yes, Google gets in on the action too. Watch Google's Year in Search below.

Is it because I’m an antho-marketer (a marketer with a passion for anthropology) that I find search queries so fascinating? I appreciate these lists because they're like little snapshots in time. One search query can remind us of what was going on at that moment.

Every day, there are more than 40,000 search queries every second. That’s over 3.5 billion searches per day and trillions of searches per year. All these searches translate into trends that offer insight into something bigger.

You can tell a lot about our culture from the things we search. We search to understand, to learn, to be inspired, to laugh and to remember.

In 2001, we looked for answers.

Search queries mirror the important events and even the underlying feeling of a year.

Take, for example, the top gaining search queries from 2001.

nostradamus
cnn
world trade center
harry potter
anthrax
windows xp
osama bin laden
audiogalaxy
taliban
loft story

2001 was a difficult year. The United States was transformed by the September 11th attacks when more than 3,000 people were killed by suicide hijackers. Half of the top search queries are related to the 9-11 attack. In such a tragic, uncertain time, people were literally searching for answers when they typed Nostradamus into the Google search bar.

In 2002, we chose to escape.

Search queries changed dramatically in 2002. Perhaps we were looking for a way to escape and forget about all of the pain and devastation 2001 brought. Popular search queries ranged from video games and sporting events to popstars and superheros.