Google reveals the most popular searches in 2015

Every year Google releases a list of top searches from its Google search users all over the world. This list sometimes throws up surprise results about what people around the world are searching but normally it lists the top headlines searches of that year.

This year Google has released its list of the most searched terms of 2015.  To get a perspective of the enormous data that is sifted through to make this list available, users make over over 3.5 billion searches are made on Google everyday — around 1.2 trillion per year — and the company combs through these to compile a list of the most popular.

The list is a good way to measure what happened during the year and includes a mix of news events, films, celebrities, and apps.

Here are the top 10 most popular searches on Google in the past year.

1. Lamar Odom

Lamar Joseph Odom (born November 6, 1979) is an American former professional basketball player. As a member of the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA), he won NBA championships in 2009 and 2010 and was named the NBA Sixth Man of the Year in 2011. During the year of 2015, he was the most searched person on Google.

2. Charlie Hebdo

Charlie Hebdo shot into limelight in January 2015 when gunmen belonging to ISIS forced their way into the Paris headquarters of Charlie Hebdo and opened fire, killing twelve people. Charlie Hebdo drew considerable support from Internet users around the world with #JeSuisCharlie trending on Twitter for many days.

3. Agar.io

This is the surprise entry into the Google most searched list. Agar.io is a massively multiplayer action game created by Matheus Valadares. Players control a cell in a map representing a petri dish; the goal is to gain as much mass as possible by swallowing smaller cells without being swallowed by bigger ones. The name Agar.io comes from the substance agar, used to culture bacteria.

4. “Jurassic World”

Jurassic World is a 2015 American science fiction adventure film and the fourth installment of the Jurassic Park series. It was directed and co-written by Colin Trevorrow, and stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard.

Jurassic World was released starting from June 10, 2015 in over 60 countries. The film received positive reviews from film critics, who praised it for its visuals, action scenes and musical score, but drew some criticism for its tone and writing. After a record-breaking opening weekend that had the film grossing $500 million worldwide, Jurassic World has generated over $1.6 billion in box office revenue, standing as the third highest-grossing film of all time without inflation adjustment, as well as the highest-grossing film of 2015.

5. Paris

Paris was the most search term after the gruesome terrorist attacks in November, 2015. On the evening of 13 November 2015, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks occurred in Paris, the capital of France, and its northern suburb, Saint-Denis. Beginning at 21:20 CET, three suicide bombers struck near the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, followed by suicide bombings and mass shootings at cafés, restaurants, and a music venue in Paris.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying that it was in retaliation for the French airstrikes on ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq. On 18 November, the suspected lead operative of the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was killed in a police raid in Saint-Denis, along with at least two other people.

6. “Furious 7”

Furious 7 (Furious Seven/Fast Seven or Fast & Furious 7) is a 2015 American action film directed by James Wan and written by Chris Morgan. The film stars Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges, Jordana Brewster, Kurt Russell, and Jason Statham.

Furious 7 premiered in Los Angeles on April 1, 2015, and was first released in Australia on April 2, 2015, and then in the United States on April 3, 2015. The film grossed $397.6 million worldwide in its first five days of release, which is the third-highest-grossing opening of all time. The film has grossed over $1.5 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film in the franchise after just twelve days, the second-highest-grossing film of 2015

7. “Fallout 4”

Fallout 4 is an open world action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The fifth major installment in the Fallout series, the game was released worldwide on November 10, 2015 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Fallout 4 received positive reviews from critics, with many praising the world depth, player freedom, overall amount of content, story, crafting, characters, and soundtrack. The visuals received a mixed response and the presence of technical issues was criticized.

8. Ronda Rousey

Ronda Jean Rousey born February 1, 1987) is an American mixed martial artist, judoka, and actress. She is the former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion, as well as the last Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Champion.

In May 2015, two magazines ranked Rousey as the most dominant active athlete. Rousey was voted on an ESPN poll as the Best Female Athlete Ever.In September 2015, she revealed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that she is currently the UFC’s highest paid fighter, male or female. Rousey’s first feature film role was the 2014 film The Expendables 3. In 2015, she had roles in the films Furious 7 and Entourage.

9. Caitlyn Jenner

Caitlyn Marie Jenner (born October 28, 1949), formerly known as Bruce Jenner, is an American television personality and retired Olympic decathlon champion. In 1976, Jenner won the gold medal for decathlon at the Montreal Summer Olympics.

Her claim to fame is that she revealed she is a trans woman in April 2015 and publicly announced her name change from Bruce to Caitlyn in a July 2015 Vanity Fair cover story. Her name and gender change became official on September 25, 2015. She has been called the most famous openly transgender woman in the world.

10. “American Sniper”

American Sniper is a 2014 American biographical war film directed by Clint Eastwood and written by Jason Hall. It is loosely based on the memoir American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History (2012) by Chris Kyle, with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice.

The world premiere was on November 11, 2014, at the American Film Institute Festival, followed by a limited theatrical release in the United States on December 25, 2014 and a wide release on January 16, 2015. The film became a major success, with a worldwide gross of over $547 million, making it the highest-grossing film of 2014 in the United States ($350 million), the highest-grossing war film of all time unadjusted for inflation, and Eastwood’s highest-grossing film to date.