Euro 2012, Whitney Houston, Gangnam Style – The Top 10 Trending UK Search Terms Of 2012

By Amy @BubbleJobs

While they might not be so forthcoming with information when the latest algorithm update hits your site and your traffic nosedives, the team at Google have been more than happy to offer up some information this week regarding what we’ve been searching for over the last 12 months.

Think you can make a pretty good guess? I’ve got a feeling you might be surprised! The most searched for UK search term of 2012? Oh that’d be “Euro 2012″ then! Yep, rather than the arguably more famous 2012 Olympics, it seems the football-frenzied fans amongst us ruled the roost when it came to Googling this year.

Unsurprisingly the phrase “Olympics tickets” came a close second, and in third place it was a celebrity… but not the one you’re probably thinking of! Yep, Kate Middleton only came in at number four – she was beaten by Whitney Houston who passed away in February.

April Jones (the five year old school girl who went missing in October and was sadly never found) came in at number five, while online movie streaming service “Netflix” came in at number six. The last seven spaces in the top ten went to “Natwest Online”, “iPad 3″, Gary Barlow and “Gangnam Style” respectively.

So what does the top 10 tell us then? Well, it tells us that, rather unsurprisingly after the success of the 2012 Olympics, we’re a nation of sport lovers with a passion for technology, celebrities and random dance crazes – but we knew that already didn’t we?

Other top 10 search lists released by Google include top trending people (Whitney Houston, Kate Middleton and Gary Barlow all made an appearance in this list too, along with Jessica Ennis, Fabrice Muamba and Prince Harry), top trending music artists (bizarrely X Factor’s Lucy Spraggan topped this list, followed by The Military Wives and Will.i.am) and top trending TV shows – kid’s TV show Mike The Knight came top in this list, with Homeland and The Only Way Is Essex coming in second and third.

Google also released a top 10 list of tech trends – an Apple product must be top, right? Wrong! While the iPad 3 and iPad Mini came second and third in the list respectively, it was Netflix that was actually the most searched for tech trend in 2012. Other entries that made it into the top 10 on this list include the “safe, creative, social online playground for children” MovieStarPlanet, smartphone messenger Kik and Samsung Galaxy S3.

So there we have it; the top people, trends and events that have seen us reaching for Google over the last 12 months. What 2013 holds for us in terms of search trends remains to be seen, but I have a feeling the phrases “royal baby”, “the hobbit” and “anchorman” might feature strongly!

Tags: Google search results 2012, Google search trends 2012, SEO, top search trends 2012 Google

About the Author

Amy Edwards Amy Edwards is the SEO Manager for Bubble Jobs. With a strong background in online content and copywriting, Amy is responsible all the on-site and off-site SEO of Bubble Jobs and the Bubble Jobs blog. You can follow her on Twitter here or add her to your circles on Google+ here.