The past 10 years have been a whirlwind.
It feels like only yesterday that the first iPad came out (2010), millions tuned into the nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton (2011), Rebecca Black released Friday (2011), we were introduced to Psy’s Gangnam Style (2012) and the internet had a heated debate over a dress (2015).
And through it all, Google was able to keep track of every single thing we (and by “we”, we mean the whole world) searched for in the past decade.
Each year Google releases its top trends in entertainment, sport and news and even touches on the most searched-for deaths in the world.
In 2010, technologically speaking, we were searching for the iPad, iPhone 4 and Nokia 5530 (gosh, remember Nokia?!).
The top trending searches overall were Chatroulette (we’re so glad that died), the iPad, Justin Bieber and Nikki Minaj.
In entertainment, we were searching for Katy Perry, Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus and Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga, Ke$ha (and of course Bieber/Minaj) all celebrities who have stood the test of time, while Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner were also very popular, because, well, Twilight.
And then in the news, the number one search was “swine flu”.
In 2014 — the middle of the decade, the world was shocked by the passing of comedian Robin Williams, whose name was the most searched term in the world.
The World Cup, the ALS ice bucket challenge and Frozen were also exceedingly popular, as was ebola and ISIS.
Kim Kardashian was still a top searched celebrity, along with Jennifer Lawrence, Lorde, Matthew McConaughey and Amal Alamuddin, who became Amal Clooney.
In 2014, we lost a slew of celebrities, some too young and gone too soon, others icons in their fields.
The list included Williams, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Peaches Geldof, Joan Rivers, Shirley Temple, Lauren Bacall and Ghostbuster’s Harold Ramis.
And now, as the decade draws to a close, the celebrities we’ve searched for have significantly changed.
We searched for Jussie Smollett (Empire), actor and comedian Kevin Hart, Keanu Reeves, Joaquin Phoenix (is it the 90s again?!), Rami Malek and of course, Fuller House’ star Lori Loughlin and her involvement in the college admissions scandal.
We were enthralled with the Jordyn Woods and Tristan Thompson cheating scandal, R Kelly’s sexual assault allegations and YouTuber James Charles’ fall from grace.
Not to mention artist of the year, Billie Eilish and climate change advocate Greta Thunberg.
