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Through the Google lens: Search trends January 2-8
January 9, 2015
2015 may have just begun, but search is already full steam ahead. From a tragedy in Paris to buzz around the new Calvin Klein ads, read on to find out how the year got started on search.
“Je suis Charlie”
The world was left in a state of disbelief on Wednesday after three gunmen stormed into the Paris office of
Charlie Hebdo
, a satirical news magazine, and killed 12 people, including the paper’s editor Stéphane “Charb” Charbonnier. The shooters targeted the publication in response to
satirical cartoons
depicting the Prophet Mohammed. Interest in the outlet reached an
all-time high
on the web and people looked for more information about “
Je suis Charlie
” (“I am Charlie”), a slogan adopted by free speech supporters in the wake of the shootings. A manhunt for the suspects finally ended Friday in a standoff at a printing company just outside of Paris, in which the two brothers behind the attacks were killed. Meanwhile, France mourns what is being called the country’s “worst terrorist attack in generations.”
The goals we can’t promise to keep
You know what they say—new year, new you. Searchers took to the Internet this week to find out how they could turn their new year’s resolutions into reality. And the usual suspects of diet and weight loss were on everyone’s list. The
Dash Diet
made it onto the trends charts after it took the number one spot on The U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings of the best diets. Created by physicians to help treat high blood pressure, DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) emphasizes fruits, veggies, whole grains and low sodium. So long, carbs; it was nice knowing you.
We’re working to get our bodies photo-shoot ready, but Justin Bieber has beaten us to the punch. “Beliebers” everywhere were left drooling over a new Calvin Klein
underwear ad
. Meanwhile, Justin’s campaign co-star, Dutch model Lara Stone, is getting some unwanted attention: she received
several death threats
from Bieber’s fans.
Looking ahead
The year’s not even two weeks old and people are already excited for what’s to come. If you blinked, you probably missed tickets for
Coachella 2015
, the star-studded desert music festival. The concert sold out after a
mere 40 minutes
! And comic book fans (and Paul Rudd loyalists) went into a frenzy when Marvel released the trailer for their latest superhero flick,
Ant Man
. Our take? This smells like a Millennial version of
Honey I Shrunk the Kid
s.
Finally, while many were looking ahead to this year’s entertainment, others took the time to remember a legend. This week, searchers were feeling sentimental for
Elvis Presley’s
80th birthday and revisited the King’s classic songs and memorable white suits.
Tip of the week
Don’t let this be another year of resolution failure: use Google to set reminders for all of your goals. Just say “Ok Google, remind me to go to the gym” when you’re ready to commit to 365 days of sweat.
Posted by Jenise Araujo, Communications Associate, who searched for [heartbreak hotel] and [gym discounts].
“The Interview” now available on Google Play and YouTube Movies
December 24, 2014
Last Wednesday Sony began contacting a number of companies, including Google, to ask if we’d be able to make their movie, "The Interview," available online. We'd had a similar thought and were eager to help—though given everything that’s happened, the security implications were very much at the front of our minds.
Of course it was tempting to hope that something else would happen to ensure this movie saw the light of day. But after discussing all the issues, Sony and Google agreed that we could not sit on the sidelines and allow a handful of people to determine the limits of free speech in another country (however silly the content might be).
So starting at 10 a.m. PST in the U.S., you can rent or buy "The Interview" on
Google Play
and
YouTube Movies
. It will also be available to
Xbox Video customers
and via www.seetheinterview.com.
Update
3:44p.m. PST
: "The Interview" is now also available in Canada.
Posted by David Drummond, SVP Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer
Ho Ho Ho! Track Santa around the world with Google’s Santa Tracker
December 24, 2014
After 23 days of preparation, the elves are finally ready for Santa’s annual journey around the globe. They’ve taught each other how to say
"Santa Claus" in Swedish
, guided their friends through mazes
with code
, brushed up on
their geography
, and learned about
organizations making a difference worldwide
. It’s been a busy month, but Santa’s sleigh is now ready for lift-off!
The elves brushed up on coding fundamentals with blockly maze games
The elves decorated their trees with ornaments about organizations making a difference
Each stop on Santa’s journey offers more to explore—discover 360-degree imagery, Wikipedia snippets, geography facts, and updates on how far Santa’s current location is from yours (take note—Santa’s path is not a direct one!). Come back and visit
google.com/santatracker
throughout the night for more surprises, like sleigh selfies or a
latitude and longitude game
to deliver presents.
Follow Santa on any screen—desktop, phone, tablet, or TV
If you’re on the ho-ho-go, download the
Santa Tracker App for Android
to keep track of Santa on your phone or tablet. With the Android app, watch Santa’s journey on your TV using Chromecast, or on your wrist with Android Wear (especially handy when wrapping last-minute gifts). And, you can always search for Santa on
www.google.com
or on
Google Maps
, and get real-time location updates with Google Now in the Google App.
Santa’s available at the flick of the wrist with Android Wear
Santa’s got a long and exciting night ahead of him before heading back to the North Pole. Grab some eggnog, set out the cookies, and join Google Maps on
Google+
,
Facebook
and
Twitter
to
#tracksanta
!
Posted by Brendan Kenny, Reindeer Platform Engineer
Let's celebrate the season of giving
December 19, 2014
It's the season of giving, and there are a lot of ways to give—by donating, by volunteering, by surprising a stranger with a random act of kindness. And we're joining in to help spread the
holiday cheer
. This month, Google.org is giving more than $15 million in grants to organizations using technology to address some of the world’s biggest problems. From San Francisco to Western Africa, these organizations are making a direct impact on people around the world, every day.
One of our grants will go to
Feeding America
. Each year, billions of pounds of surplus food are sent to landfills, while
49 million Americans
(including one in five children) go hungry. Our grant will help support their newest food rescue initiative called the Online Marketplace, a program that connects local retail and foodservice businesses who have excess food to those in need. Feeding America serves 3.3 billion meals annually and the Online Marketplace is projected to lead to the recovery of an additional 740 million meals, significantly reducing food waste while giving more families access to food.
Two of our other grantees are working on the front lines to help ensure lives aren't lost to preventable diseases.
Nexleaf Analytics
works to get life-saving vaccines to children in India and Mozambique by preserving these vaccines before they spoil by installing low-cost refrigerator sensors in clinics.
Malaria No More
is fighting to save lives by better understanding the spread of malaria using newly available mobile data to map malaria cases and how they are being treated.
To learn more about additional nonprofits we’re supporting through these grants, and to see how you can get involved with their efforts, visit
g.co/happyholidays
and see our slideshow below:
These are only part of our annual philanthropic efforts. Over the course of the year, we strive to make the world a little bit better through our technology and
giving programs
, including more than $100 million in grants, $1 billion in technology resources, and 80,000+ volunteer hours donated to causes around the world.
We're inspired by all the people out there who are working to make a difference—whether it's one of these organizations or simply one person doing a good deed for another. We're glad to do our part spreading some love this holiday season, and look forward to seeing more world-changing work in 2015.
Posted by Jacquelline Fuller, Director, Google.org
A Year in Search: the moments that defined 2014
December 16, 2014
Every year, we reflect on the moments that made us laugh, smile from ear to ear, or stay gripped to our screens in our annual
Year in Search
. In 2014, we were struck by the death of a beloved comedian, and watched news unfold about a horrific plane crash and a terrifying disease. We were captivated by the beautiful game, and had fun with birds, a bucket of ice, and a frozen princess.
Watch our
video
to rediscover the events, people and topics that defined 2014:
Wishing the genie goodbye
“You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.” The passing of beloved comedian and actor
Robin Williams
shook the world, bringing many people online to search for more information and to remember—and putting Williams in the #1 spot on our global trends charts. There was even an uptick in searches related to depression tests and mental health in the days following his death. We revisited his iconic roles in movies like
Aladdin
and
Dead Poets Society
and found solace in
gifs
and
memes
that captured Williams’ spirit.
All the world’s a stage
Nothing brings people together like sports, and 2014 had one of the biggest athletic events in recent memory. The
World Cup
in Brazil had its fair share of unforgettable moments and had everyone glued to their TVs and mobile devices all summer. From Luis Suarez’s bite heard around the world, to Tim Howard's superman performance vs. Belgium, to Germany’s incredible run to their fourth title, the competition certainly lived up to its reputation and topped the charts.
While sports brought people together, so did a good cause. This year, awareness for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, better known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, reached an all-time high around the world due to the viral
ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
. As celebrities and everyday people alike braved a bucket of ice cold water for a cause, donations to help find a cure for the illness hit almost $100 million.
Into the unknown
How could a plane just vanish into thin air? In the wake of the disappearance of
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
, that question propelled the mystery to the global trends charts. As the investigation continued on the ground and online, people stayed hopeful for a happy ending despite the dim odds: searches for “mh370 found” outnumbered searches for “mh370 lost.”
Here’s the full list of our top 10 global trending searches:
You can find more on these top searches and more at
google.com/2014
Explore the stories from the year, one chapter at a time
On our Year in Search site, you can take an in-depth look at the stories that made 2014 unforgettable. From the rise of the selfie, to understanding if we search for “how” more than “why,” each chapter shares a glimpse into the people and events that drove this year forward.
We've also made it easier to find the trending topics of the year directly from Google Search. For the first time, a simple search for [google 2014] will give you a peek at what made the top trending lists from around the world. And you can follow more insights from the year with #YearInSearch. So take a moment to appreciate what this year had to offer. It’ll be 2015 before you know it.
Posted by
+Amit Singhal
, Senior Vice President, Search
Through the Google lens: search trends December 6-11
December 12, 2014
From
The Colbert Report
to astronomer Annie Jump Cannon, here's a look at this week's search stars.
The presidency is just my day job
Being the President of the United State is no easy task, but Barack Obama may have just faced his toughest test yet...a seat on
The Colbert Report
. This is the Commander-in-Chief’s third time on the show, but it’s still no cakewalk with every topic up for grabs—including Obama’s less than ideal approval ratings and his graying hair. Obama proved himself up for the challenge, though, kicking Colbert off his segment and
making it his own
.
Not only does Obama moonlight as a comedian—it turns out he can also code. At a White House event with 30 middle school students, the President kicked off
Hour of Code
, a program that encourages young people to develop their computer and software programming skills. With a little help from one of the kids, Obama wrote a single line of JavaScript, “moveForward(100),” to move the tutorial’s character 100 pixels to the right, and in the process becoming the
first U.S. president
to write a computer program.
Winners and losers
Competition on
The Voice
is heating up; the three finalists were revealed this week. But there’s a twist in the show’s seventh season: to spice things up, its creators introduced a new wildcard spot, bringing the total number of potential finalists to four. Now the nine remaining contestants who didn’t make it to the top three will duke it out for that fourth spot and a shot at singing glory.
While
The Voice
contestants still have a chance to take home the grand prize, other stars were left out in the cold this week when the
Golden Globe
nominations included several snubs. Names left off the selection sheet were Angelina Jolie and her upcoming film
Unbroken
, Christopher Nolan and his much-hyped
Interstellar
, and Bradley Cooper, who
gained 40 pounds
to portray Chris Kyle in the biopic film
American Sniper
. Oh well—there's still the Oscars. Meanwhile, movies
Birdman
and
Boyhood
snapped up seven and five nominations, respectively—and the TV category is staying interesting with nods for several Netflix original series, Amazon’s first appearance with
Transparent
, and two surprise nominations for the CW’s quirky
Jane the Virgin
.
The sky above
This week, searchers spent a good chunk of their time looking up. The
weather
was top of mind as the Pineapple Express—no, not the film—hit the San Francisco Bay Area, causing flooding and power outages. The phenomenon gets its name from its origins in the waters near Hawaii, a.k.a. the Pineapple State, where it develops before heading towards the U.S Pacific Coast.
Even for those of us trapped indoors, searchers got a chance to look at the stars...on our homepage at least. Searchers looked for more information about astronomer
Annie Jump Cannon
after a Google doodle marked her 151st birthday. Cannon—who was deaf for most of her adult life, and often overshadowed by her colleague Edward C. Pickering—was instrumental in the development of the Harvard Classification system, which categorizes stars by their temperature (whether or not they were nominated for a Golden Globe).
Tip of the week
Need to find something in the apps on your Android phone? Now you can ask your Google app for help—even if it’s in another app. Just say “Ok Google” and then “search YouTube for holiday decorating ideas” or “search Tumblr for Taylor Swift” and jump straight to those results within the other app (if you have it installed).
And come back next week for Google's Year in Search—a review of the people, moments, and events that captured the world's attention.
Posted by Jenise Araujo, Communications Associate, who searched for [comedian-in-chief] and [team adam].
Android dress code: wear what you want
December 10, 2014
Deciding what to wear is a really personal thing—it’s one of the ways you show people what you’re about. Wearable technology is no different, so
Android Wear
offers a wide selection of apps and watches to suit your taste. It’s about expressing who you are, however you want, right on your wrist.
Today there’s even more ways to show your style with Android Wear, including dozens of new watch faces (powered by an official
Watch Face API
), a full collection of devices on Google Play, and lots of other improvements based on your feedback. So try ‘em on for size, and
let us know
what you think.
Watch faces for whatever you’re into
Starting today you can download watch faces from Google Play, just like you do with apps. We’ve got
dozens of examples
to get you started—from the unpredictable Minions in Despicable Me to the X-Ray artistry of Hugh Turvey. And because the new Watch Face API is available to all developers, you can expect even more choices in the weeks and months ahead.
We’ve also updated the
Android Wear app
on your phone to make browsing, downloading, and switching watch faces really easy. So pick the one you like the best, or pick a new one every day.
(Both updates are rolling out over the next week, so don’t worry if you don’t see them yet.)
Examples of Android Wear watch faces
A family of watches to choose from
In only a few short months, the Android Wear collection has grown to include
six unique watches
—the ASUS ZenWatch, the LG G Watch, the LG G Watch R, the Moto 360, the Samsung Gear Live, and the Sony SmartWatch 3. Some are circular, others are square. Some are traditional, others are sporty. And that’s exactly the point. With different shapes and styles, it’s really easy to make your watch your own.
So by all means: wear what you want.
Posted by David Singleton, Director of Engineering, Android Wear
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