Donald Trump, extreme weather, and the U.S. election dominate Google’s top trending searches of 2024

Google is the latest tech giant to release its year-end recap. Spotify Wrapped and Apple Music Replay debuted earlier this month, and Snapchat Recap comes next week.

But unlike the other year-end roundups, Google’s doesn’t focus on your personal activity during the year. Instead, it reveals the top trending searches both globally and in the United States.

This year, when it came to news and people, U.S. politicians and events dominated the lists. But so did climate-related events—no surprise, considering that 2024 is believed to be the hottest year on record. Here are Google’s top trending searches of 2024.

Searches

Unsurprisingly, in a year featuring the most dramatic and contentious election cycle in modern American history, the election and Donald Trump topped the most trending searches in the U.S. in 2024. Even globally, Trump managed to trend in sixth place.

U.S. Google users also seemed concerned about extreme weather and its effects this year, with “Hurricane Milton tracker” coming in at No. 7. It won’t be the last time extreme weather and climate-change-related events show up on these lists.

Searches (US)

1. Election
2. Donald Trump
3. Connections
4. New York Yankees
5. Kamala Harris
6. Copa América
7. Hurricane Milton tracker
8. Olympic medal count
9. Toby Keith
10. Liam Payne

Searches (Global)

1. Copa América
2. UEFA European Championship
3. ICC Men’s T20 World Cup
4. India vs England
5. Liam Payne
6. Donald Trump
7. India vs Bangladesh
8. iPhone 16
9. Olympic Games Paris 2024
10. Catherine, Princess of Wales

News

Regarding news, the top trending searches in the United States and abroad related to the U.S. election, which took the top spot in both the U.S. and global news categories. The attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the House election results, and the Trump-linked Project 2025 also garnered spots in the top 10.

Climate and extreme weather events also dominated news trends. In the U.S., Hurricane Milton, heat advisory, and Hurricane Helene took three of the top 10 spots. Globally, excessive heat and Hurricane Milton took two of the top five spots.

News (US)

1. Election
2. Copa América
3. Olympics
4. Hurricane Milton
5. Paralympics
6. Project 2025
7. Trump shot
8. House election results
9. Heat advisory
10. Hurricane Helene

News (Global)

1. U.S. Election
2. Excessive heat
3. Olympics
4. Hurricane Milton
5. 台風 気象 情報 台風 第 10 号
6. Iran
7. Rafah
8. Crowdstrike
9. Trump shot
10. Menendez brothers

People

When it comes to people, given the results above, it should be little surprise that the world spent a lot of time searching about U.S. politicians. In both the United States and globally, Donald Trump was the top trending person in search.

In the U.S., the president-elect was followed by his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, then his running mate, Senator JD Vance, and finally, outgoing President Joe Biden. Harris, Vance, and Biden also made the top 10 list in global trending people search.

People (US)

1. Donald Trump
2. Kamala Harris
3. JD Vance
4. Joe Biden
5. Catherine, Princess of Wales
6. Tim Walz
7. Mike Tyson
8. Jill Stein
9. Usher
10. Imane Khelif

People (Global)

1. Donald Trump
2. Catherine, Princess of Wales
3. Kamala Harris
4. Imane Khelif
5. Joe Biden
6. Mike Tyson
7. JD Vance
8. Lamine Yamal
9. Simone Biles
10. Diddy

A glimpse into Americans’ questions and concerns

Google’s top trending searches of 2024 also reveal some interesting nuggets about what people in the United States had on their minds throughout the year.

For example, the top five trending internet theories were:

1. the burnt toast theory
2. the orange peel theory
3. the October theory
4. the invisible string theory
5. the taxi cab theory

People also wondered if the following words were real: Demure, Beaut, Sigma, Funner, and Skibidi.

They also asked Google to explain political-related topics, including Project 2025 and the Electoral College.

As far as relationships go, people wondered when one should become exclusive and if it was OK to have a crush on a fictional character while in a relationship.

Finally, people in the United States also wondered why things were so expensive, including eggs, olive oil, Paxlovid, car insurance, chocolate, and the Apple Vision Pro.