The Year 2017 in Review
This is the time to recap the year that was.
There are a number of ways to do it, many of which are interesting. You can look at a year in terms of notable deaths, viral events, political rises and falls…
But how do you really get a 12-month snapshot of a culture's zeitgeist?
I would argue for two words: Google searches.
I'm not saying that this will be what historians will mark in 10, much less 100 years… even less what is most significant. But I will say that it may be the clearest window into our current soul.
So here we go with a few peeks into our inner world, courtesy of Google itself.
Top 10 Searches:
Hurricane Irma
Matt Lauer
Tom Petty
Super Bowl
Las Vegas Shooting
Mayweather vs McGregor fight
Solar Eclipse
Hurricane Harvey
Aaron Hernandez
Fidget Spinner
Top 10 "How To…":
How to make slime
How to make solar eclipse glasses
How to watch the solar eclipse
How to watch Mayweather vs McGregor
How to buy Bitcoin
How to freeze your credit
How to solve a Rubix cube
How to make a fidget spinner
How to cook a turkey in the oven
How to screen record
Top 10 What is…:
What is DACA?
What is Bitcoin?
What is a solar eclipse?
What is ANTIFA?
What is net neutrality?
What is covfefe?
What is the antikythera mechanism?
What is a fidget spinner?
What is the Paris Climate Agreement?
What is a hurricane?
And finally, the Top 10 People of 2017 we were interested in:
Matt Lauer
Meghan Markle
Harvey Weinstein
Michael Flynn
Kevin Spacey
Bill O'Reilly
Melania Trump
Kathy Griffin
Milo Yiannopoulos
Gal Gadot
Welcome to our world.
James Emery White
Sources
See the "Year in Search 2017" for the United States, Google, read online.