For many, 2017 can’t come quickly enough. A good old “clean slate protocol” every now and then is good for the body and mind. With that said, we look back at Ireland’s top Google searches in 2016 to get into the minds of the Irish public.
Ireland’s trending Google searches in 2016
We search for a lot of things every year and we’ll come back to the most popular annual terms. But first, we want to dive into the new searches that appeared for the first time this year.
Pokémon GO
It’s still fairly popular, but Pokémon GO was possibly the most come and go trend in tech history. Just look at the popularity trend for the past year.
That’s what shortlived looks like. With that said, it’s undeniable how massive an impact Pokémon GO made on 2016. Hundreds of thousands of people now know what augmented reality is. The game got people out and about into the fresh air.
Our #PokemonGO #LureDrop has visited the Spire pic.twitter.com/UgLu9fZ4E4
— Goos3D (@Goos3D_IE) July 23, 2016
123Movies
Ireland has seen chord-cutting grow in popularity. Chord-cutting is when customers opt for streaming online over traditional services like Sky. Some will pay for services like Netflix, others prefer “grey area” sites like 123Movies. This site is the second most searched new item in 2016.
123Movies is a free website that provides users with links to the latest movies and TV shows. The site is the second most searcheInterest in the site grew from October and was most prominent in Limerick. It’s a grey area because you are viewing a lot of content you should be paying for – a debate for another day. All that matters now, is that TV providers and cinemas need to make their services more attractive
Slither.io
Slither.io is a game, where the object is to feed a snake multicoloured pellets. It’s a multiplayer game with the added incentive to grow the biggest snake in the game. I get how these kind of games are addictive and popular. But I am surprised to see this rank second in Ireland’s most popular Google searches of 2016. Searches for the game peaked in May and was largely supported by interest in Agar.
Agar was a very similar game from last year. Strangely enough, it also ranked second most popular Irish Google search term in 2015.
Donald Trump
It’s a little surprising that Trump didn’t rank higher in our popular search terms. There are two likely causes. The first is the fact no one really thought we needed to know anything about the “other candidate” in the American election. The second cause is how Google registers searches. Trump made such an impact on Google this year, he was counted twice. “Trump” was the third most popular search term in Ireland for 2016. In at fifth was “Donald Trump”.
Unsurprisingly, interest in Trump peaked around November as people tried to learn more about the next President of the United States. As the shock spread, even a large number of Americans were searching for how to get an Irish passport.
You can probably expect to see a few more related searches for Trump in 2017.
Euro 2016
Do you remember when the craic was ninety during the summer? I remember hugging some random man with glee in McGowans as we sank the Italians. Thousands gathered in Smithfield to see us take the lead against eventual defeated finalists France.
Mainly, us Irish were Googling ways to knock a bit more craic from a tournament we didn’t expect to win. We were searching for things like Fantasy Football and how to run a sweepstake.
Ireland’s top Google searches in 2016
Whereas the trending 2016 Google searches focuses on new searches, we’ll now look at the most popular searches overall.
Dublin
Our nation’s capital is the overall top Googled term for 2016. You might think this unsurprising, but it was nowhere near the top last year. Interest in Dublin spiked this year because of several events taking place. The 1916 celebrations topped the list followed by Oktoberfest, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Elliot and Beyonce.
Of course, Facebook ranks highly on this list. Irish people spend almost six hours on Facebook every week. You’ll often hear murmurs that Facebook is in general decline. If you were to solely look at Facebook searches in Google since 2008, the numbers would appear to suggest the same.
But don’t panic just yet people, Facebook is going nowhere. Google searches for Facebook are in natural decline as users access the service through the mobile app. Even returning users on laptops are likely to go straight to Facebook, bypassing Google.
YouTube
Google’s video streaming beast YouTube still holds its own at the top of popular searches. One thing is certain for 2017. We will still have PewDiePie who trolled the world’s media by saying he would quit YouTube when he reached fifty million subscribers. Sure enough, he hit fifty million subs and then deleted a different channel. Well played sir.
So, 2016 that’s nearly a wrap. Trump will almost certainly dominate 2017’s trends. We’re thankfully heading into a new year with some new hope. Chances are we’ll be giving out about 2017 in no time. You can look through everyone’s Google searches yourself by visiting the Trends hub.
