THE World Cup, the royal wedding, queries about Instagram and opting out of My Health Record, as well as green poop, were among the top trending internet searches in Australia in 2018.
Google, which holds about 95 per cent of the search engine market share in Australia, revealed on Friday the World Cup, Commonwealth Games and Meghan Markle were the top three trends of the year.
Swedish DJ Avicii, American TV personality Anthony Bourdain and rapper Mac Miller – who all died in 2018 – also featured among the top 10 trending searches.
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READ NOWThe rankings are based not on total searches but instead on what had the highest spike in traffic over a sustained period in 2018 as compared to 2017.
The Duchess of Sussex was especially popular with her wedding taking out the news category, ahead of the widely-publicised Thai cave rescue and the Liberal Party’s historic loss in the federal seat of Wentworth.
Health conscious Australians looked for recipes for the keto diet and beef stroganoff and questioned how to lose weight fast, what is listeria and “why is my poop green”.
When it came to Australian identities, former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce and his partner Vikki Campion heavily trended while new prime minister Scott Morrison and his conservative rival Peter Dutton had people thumping keyboards to learn more.
“How to” queries revealed a massive spike in Australians wanting to opt out of the much-maligned My Health Record system.
Searches about how to win Powerball – including August’s record $100 million draw – and how to delete Instagram and Facebook also trended widely as did queries on why the NRL had moved a State of Origin game to a Sunday.
TOP TRENDS IN AUSTRALIA
OVERALL: World Cup, Commonwealth Games, Meghan Markle, Avicii, (cryptocurrency trader) Coinspot, Anthony Bourdain, US Open Tennis, Mac Miller, Bitcoin price, Black Panther
NEWS: Royal Wedding, Thai cave rescue, Wentworth by-election, My health record, Beaumont children
GLOBAL FIGURES: Meghan Markle, Demi Lovato, Freddie Mercury, Khloe Kardashian, Logan Paul
AUSTRALIANS: Barnaby Joyce, Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton, Billy Slater, Craig McLachlan
DEATHS: Avicii, Anthony Bourdain, Mac Miller, xxxtentacion, Stan Lee (highest Australian: Jessica Falkholt)
HOW TO: opt out of my health record, watch World Cup in Australia, win Powerball, delete Instagram, Google Arts and Culture face match
WHAT IS: bitcoin, listeria, ligma, hazing, a mud room
WHY IS: State of Origin on Sunday, is it called Good Friday, Russia OAR, Australia Day Jan 26, Tim Cahill not playing tonight (10th: my poop green)
RECIPES: Keto, beef stroganoff, chicken curry, frittata, gnocchi
HOW TO COOK: corned beef, eggplant, tofu, silverside, beetroot