Google celebrates its 25th anniversary on Wednesday. The world’s leading search engine began as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin during their doctoral studies at Stanford University in the late 1990s. From their dorm rooms, they created an innovative algorithm called PageRank, which ranked websites based on the number of links pointing to them. This method proved far more effective than existing algorithms, helping Google quickly rise to dominance in the search engine market.
Although officially founded on September 4, Google celebrates its birthday on September 27, coinciding with a milestone in the number of web pages it was indexing. As of last month, Google controls about 92% of the global search market, with competitors Bing and Yahoo holding just 3% and over 1%, respectively.
The name “Google” is derived from the mathematical term “googol,” which represents the number 1 followed by 100 zeros, reflecting the founders’ vision of organizing vast amounts of information. Over the years, Google has become integral to daily life, shaping how we search, communicate, and engage with online content.
In 2006, the Oxford Dictionary added “google” as a verb, meaning to search for information online, regardless of the search engine used. That same year, Google introduced Google Trends, providing insights into the billions of searches conducted globally each year. At the end of every year, Google releases its “Year in Search,” summarizing the most significant events, people, and trends that captured attention worldwide.
Here’s a look at the most searched categories from 2003 to 2022:
Top Searched Categories
To analyze these terms, they were grouped into six categories:
- Person, celebrity, politician (38 appearances)
- Technology products (27 appearances)
- Sports events (15 appearances)
- Disasters, accidents (8 appearances)
- Movies, TV shows, songs (7 appearances)
- Other (5 appearances)
The category with the most appearances was people, celebrities, or politicians (38%), featuring names like Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, Nelson Mandela, Donald Trump, and Queen Elizabeth II.
Technology products ranked second with 27 mentions, including Myspace, Facebook, iPhone, Pokemon Go, and Zoom.
Sports events made 15 appearances, showcasing key moments such as the FIFA World Cup, NBA events, and major cricket matches.
Natural disasters and accidents appeared eight times, with notable events like Hurricane Katrina, the 2005 tsunami, Ebola, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, and COVID-19.
Finally, movies, TV shows, and songs appeared seven times, with searches related to Harry Potter, The Matrix, American Idol, Gangnam Style, and Black Panther.
Other notable searches included the Ice Bucket Challenge, Paris, election results, Wordle, and Ukraine.
