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# What We "Googled" in 2012?

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<!-- video src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/rfvfPSs6.m3u8" -->
## Video: What We "Googled" in 2012?

[Watch (HLS stream): What We "Googled" in 2012?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/rfvfPSs6.m3u8) (4:54)

![What We "Googled" in 2012?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/rfvfPSs6/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2012-12-12. From Gangnam Style, to Hurricane Sandy, these are the top 10 trending Google searches of 2012_


---

Jul 27, 2023 3:29 PM UTC

---

## More From This Series

[All Videos](https://time.com/video/)

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### Lamar Odom, 'Jurassic Park,' Paris: What Was 2015's Top Google Search?

[How The Google Search Deal Could Be A Boon For Twitter](/video/39BWAVqO/)

### How The Google Search Deal Could Be A Boon For Twitter

[Europe Takes On Google](/video/MCixc1HE/)

### Europe Takes On Google

---


## Transcript

[ NOISE ] [ MUSIC ] I'm Tim Morrison, editor of NewsFeed, and these are the top trending stories on Google for 2012. [ NOISE ] Right now. There are more people on Facebook than there were on the planet 200 years ago. Kony 2012 was a video created by the group Invisible Children to bring the Ugandan militia leader Joseph Kony to justice. And I'm about to tell you exactly how we're going to do it. It went viral earlier this year, and prompted some criticism from people who said it over- simplified the problems of the country. The criticism actually ended up getting to the film's creator, Jason Russell.

He was found on the street in San Diego naked and screaming incoherently. He later told Oprah Winfrey that he'd suffered a nervous breakdown due to all the stress. [ SOUND ] Michael Clarke Duncan, the star of the Oscar nominated film, The Green Mile. Died September third. He's six foot five, 325 pound actor, who had suffered from a mild cardial infection [ SOUND ]. [ MUSIC ] Gangnam style is now the most viewed video in the history of YouTube. It's by Korean rapper Psy also known as Park Jae- Sang. It features his famous invisible horse dance, which he's now done with everyone from Madonna, to Britney Spears, to MC Hammer.

[ MUSIC ] On September 7th a Canadian teenager named Amanda Todd posted a video on Youtube titled My Story, Struggling, Bullying, Suicide and Self- Harm. On October 10th, she killed herself. The video went viral soon after and prompted new discussions about bullying and teenage mental health. She was 15 years old. [ MUSIC ] [ SOUND ] [ MUSIC ] Olympics 2012 was a heavily trending search term on Google this year. And quite an Olympics it was. The games themselves were a huge success. Starting with the opening ceremonies which featured The Spice Girls riding around on the tops of Black London cabs.

And the queen parachuting with James Bond out of an airplane. [ MUSIC ] Jeremy Lin came off the bench and into the hearts of New York Nicks fans everywhere. [ MUSIC ] When Coach Mike D'Antony put him in, he erupted for 25 points, five rebounds and seven assists. He immediately started a sensation known as Lin- sanity, but in March, Lin tore the meniscus in his left knee. He chose to have season- ending surgery. After that, he was traded to the Houston Rockets who gave Lin a three- year, $ 25 million dollar contract that the Knicks wouldn't match. [ MUSIC ] The movie Hunger Games, based on the best selling book by author Suzanne Collins, came in at number four on Google's Top Trending terms of 2012.

The film grossed more than $ 685 million world wide, starred Jenifer Lawrence as the heroine Katniss Everdeen. They'd catch us. Maybe not. We wouldn't make it five miles. [ SOUND ] [ MUSIC ] The U. S. Presidential Election is always gonna be one of the biggest stories of 2012, with President Barack Obama facing off against Mitt Romney. In the end, President Obama won re- election comfortably, with 332 electoral votes and 50. 6 percent of the popular vote. [ Music ]. Hurricane Sandy struck the US on October 29, and left millions without power, and more than a hundred dead across the United States.

Some of the worst damage the storm caused, however, wasn't even in the US at all, but in the Caribbean. Of more than 70 people died across the region, including several in Haiti [ MUSIC ]. The highest trending search term on Google for 2012 was Whitney Houston. The Grammy award winning singer was found dead in her hotel room at the Beverly Hilton on the eve of the 54th Grammy Awards. An autopsy report said she'd accidently drowned in the bathtub due to the effects of hearth disease complicated by chronic cocaine use. For more of Google's top search trends for 2012, go to Time. com and for Time's top 10 everything of the year, go to Time.

com top 10.

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