Google’s Year in Search 2023: War in the Middle East . . . Kevin James . . . the Roman Empire . . . and More

December 12, 2023

Hits 96 Staff,

Google Top Searches — FILE - A cursor moves over Google's search engine page, in Portland, Ore., on Aug. 28, 2018. Your Google search history for 2023 has arrived. Well, actually, the world's. On Monday, Dec. 11, 2023, the California-based tech giant released its “Year in Search,” a roundup of 2023’s top global queries, ranging from unforgettable pop culture moments (hello, Barbenheimer), to the loss of beloved figures and tragic news carrying worldwide repercussions. (AP Photo/Don Ryan, File)

Chattanooga, Tennessee—(Wise Brother)

Google released its annual “Year in Search” stats . . . and in 2023, it was dominated by: War, Kevin James, and the Roman Empire.

Here’s a rundown of the top searches in the U.S. . . .

1. The top news topics we googled were: The war in Israel and Gaza . . . the Titanic submarine . . . Hurricane Hilary . . . Hurricane Idalia . . . and Hurricane Lee.

The next five were: The Maine shooting . . . the Nashville shooting . . . the Maui fire . . . the Idaho murder trial . . . and the Canada wildfires.

(2023 seems so bleak: War . . . climate disasters . . . shootings . . . and the Titanic submersible mystery that ended . . . similar to the real Titanic.)

2. The top memes we searched were: Kevin James . . . Ohio . . . Police girl . . . Folding chair . . . Smurf cat . . . the Waffle House new host . . . One two buckle my shoe . . . Animan Studios . . . Selena Gomez . . . and Submarine.

3. The top trends we searched were: The Roman Empire trend . . . the Moon phase trend . . . the AI yearbook trend . . . the Instagram notes number trend . . . and the Fruit Roll-Ups trend.

4. The top “How Often . . . ” searches were: How often do you think about the Roman Empire? . . . How often is the World Baseball Classic? . . . How often is the blue moon? . . . How often is the World Cup? . . . and How often do trains derail? (#10 was: How often is Punxsutawney Phil correct?)

5. The top recipes we searched were: Grimace shake . . . Lasagna soup . . . Chicken cobbler . . . Black cake . . . and Pumptini.

(To dig in deeper, here’s the full Google Trends report. For example, you can find the most popular LOCAL searches, here . . . and the top GLOBAL searches, here.)