What has moved people the most this year

Google's review of the year shows what interested, shocked or fascinated people the most in 2023. Which events and topics dominated the headlines, which people were in the spotlight? Great suffering, great happiness, great achievements, great stupidities - a year in fast-forward.

Anyone searching for something on the Internet almost always uses Google. The company has a market share of just under 80 percent in desktop browsers and around 96 percent on mobile devices. Google's annual overview of the topics that have moved people the most in Germany and around the world is correspondingly informative. It was to be expected that some search terms would come out on top, but there were also some real surprises.

Headlines

The war in the Gaza Strip is the result of a terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, in which more than 1200 people were killed.

The war in Israel and Gaza continues to dominate the headlines, while the war in Ukraine does not appear in the top 10. The devastating earthquake in Turkey is in second place, followed by the band Rammstein, which was unintentionally in the spotlight this year.

International celebrities

Among the international celebrities, Bayern Munich's new English star striker Harry Kane leads the way, breaking one record after another in his first season with the record champions. He is followed by Taylor Swift, probably the most successful singer in the world at the moment, who is also making headlines as a sportsman's girlfriend. US actor Jeremy Renner owes his third place not to his performances as an actor, but to his own snowplow that ran over him.

German personalities

It felt like the whole of Germany was discussing whether the accusations made by several young women against Rammstein singer Till Lindemann were true or not. At the end of August, the public prosecutor's office in Berlin closed an investigation, but the discussion about how male show stars treat female fans continues.

The second most googled German personality is make-up artist Djamila Rowe. She became famous in the past for a fictitious affair with a Swiss ambassador, and this year she rose to fame after winning "Ich bin ein Star - Holt mich hier raus!". Iris Klein is not only in third place because she is Daniela Katzenberger's mother. She is also involved in the current edition of"Promi Big Brother".

Farewells

Tina Turner with her famous lion's mane. (Shag)

In 2023, the world has lost many great personalities from sport and entertainment. At the top of the sad list is Tina Turner. The great singer and strong woman passed away at the age of 83 after a long career with highs and lows.

Matthew Perry was only 54 years old. He is best known for his role as Chandler Bing in the cult TV series "Friends", which was filmed from 1994 to 2004. Skiing legend Rosi-Mittermeier celebrated her greatest successes at the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck with two gold and one silver medal. She died at the beginning of January at the age of 72.

Films

Unsurprisingly, the Hollywood blogbusters"Oppenheimer" and"Barbie" are the most popular films. Although the life of the "father of the atomic bomb" has little to do with the blonde cult plastic doll, they came together as "Barbenheimer", as the films were released in cinemas at the same time on July 21. With little plot but plenty of spectacle, the second"Avatar" flick"The Way of Water" took third place.

Series

Vivi Klettmann (Julia Beautx) at her mother's funeral in

A real surprise is that"Gestern waren wir noch Kinder"(Yesterday we were still children) took first place among the most googled series, a seven-part drama about the breakdown of a family after the father kills the mother. The ZDF production left the spectacular "Addams Family" spin-off"Wednesday" behind, which was shown on Netflix. In third place is the real-life adaptation of the fantasy pirate manga"One Piece", which fans say is quite successful and can be found on the same streaming platform.

Memes

Many people don't understand a meme when they come across it for the first time, so they google it. The most common one was"Ohio", which probably originated in 2016 when a bus ad read "Ohio is being eliminated". Why, why, why? It's best to find out for yourself, because explaining a meme is hell (of Ohio).

The same goes for"Let me do it for You". Just this much: it starts with a dog video on TikTok. With"Olaf Scholz", on the other hand, the explanation is simple: his appearances with an eye patch after an accident were literally crying out for memes.

AI questions

If you want to find out about artificial intelligence (AI), you could also ask a chatbot directly. But you need to know that first. That's why the three most important AI search terms in 2023 were"What is ChatGPT?","What is AI?" and, of course,"What can AI do".

Climate change questions

It is also important to understand the difference between climate and weather.

Like AI, climate change also played a special role in Google searches this year and therefore also received its own evaluation. And here, too, there are some fundamental issues to clarify, which is why"What is climate change?" took second place. In first place is"Climate protection - what can I do?" The third-placed entry,"What can I do about climate change in everyday life", goes in the same direction.

What questions

The major hot topics also raise many related questions. Users often want details or terms explained."What is the Gaza Strip?" dominated the What questions in 2023, followed by"What is a centenary?" and"What is a kibbutz?".

How questions

"How deep is the Titanic?" is in first place among the how questions, as a diving ship crashed on its way to the wreck with five people on board in June. The second-placed search entry is about the "King of Mallorca":"How old is Jürgen Drews?"

The following question"What do you call angels without wings?" is perhaps based on Milano's current song "Engel ohne Flügel". Helene Fischer sang a song with the same title two years ago. But it is also possible that many people remembered Detlef Engel. He died on January 14 of this year and sang the hit "Ein Engel ohne Flügel" in 1961.

Why questions

Questions that begin with "Why" often seek a meaning, a deeper explanation - but they don't have to. In 2023, for example, the most frequently entered question in Google searches was"Why were fake lashes invented?"

While you would like to hear comedian Martina Hill answer this question, the second-placed why question is unfortunately deadly serious:"Why is Israel at war?""Why do people celebrate carnival?" is another question that should not be taken lightly, as fans of the tradition can't take a joke.

What has moved people the most this year