Internet
Gaza and Lindemann: Google publishes annual review
Interesting insights: Google has published an annual review of search queries. photo
© Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa
“What is the Gaza Strip?” The Gaza war has recently dominated searches on Google. What else were users looking for information about this year?
There are particularly many users of the search engine We recently searched Google for information about the Gaza war. This emerges from the Internet giant’s annual statistics for 2023, which were published in Berlin. The topic is at the top of the headlines, but also leads with the search “What is the Gaza Strip?” the “What questions” section.
Google’s annual statistics do not include the most searched topics. For years, inquiries about the current weather or websites such as Amazon, Facebook or YouTube have been at the forefront. The annual review shows the search terms that recorded the highest percentage increase in search interest in a specific period compared to the same period last year.
Stars and starlets and a plane crash
Last year, the Ukraine conflict dominated almost all sections of Google’s annual charts for Germany. This year, only a few individual topics, such as the mercenary group Wagner and its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, end up at the bottom of the charts. The Russian mercenary leader’s private jet crashed northwest of Moscow in August, two months after his mutiny against the Moscow leadership.
When it comes to celebrities, many people googled Till Lindemann, lead singer of the band Rammstein. In recent months he has been at the center of allegations that he has denied. The Berlin public prosecutor’s office stopped its investigations against the rock star in August. Jungle queen Djamila Rowe, who appeared in the 16th season of “I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here!”, landed in second place on the people charts this year. won. The reality show “Celebrity Big Brother” catapulted Iris Klein to third place, followed by pop singer Jürgen Drews and presenter and podcaster Amira Pocher.
What exactly is a “Zentenar”?
The second most popular “what question” shows how intensively Google searches are used while watching TV. On February 27th, RTL presenter Günther Jauch wanted to appear on his quiz show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” when asked the 32,000 euro question: “What is a Zentenar?” His betting candidate had already used her telephone joker and was of course not allowed to google it. So she had to pass and went home with only 16,000 euros. By the way, a “Zentenar” is a centenarian.
In the 2023 annual statistics, Google has shown two topic categories for the first time, namely “Artificial Intelligence (AI)” and “Climate”. When it comes to climate protection, users are primarily interested in what they can personally do to combat climate change. In the AI section, the question about the text robot ChatGPT was the focus of interest, followed by the more general questions “What is AI?” and “What can AI do?”.
In the “Farewell” section, Google users were particularly moved by the death of the American rock singer Tina Turner, who had particularly loyal fans in Germany and her adopted home of Switzerland. In the case of “Friends” star Matthew Perry, the unexplained circumstances of his death may have fueled interest. Perry was found dead in the hot tub of his Los Angeles home in October at the age of 54. The late legendary ski racer and Olympic champion Rosi Mittermaier was also frequently searched for – as was the German model Tatjana Patitz.