December 18, 2017
As the days wind down in 2017, there's no better way to get an aggregate snapshot of what mattered to people this year than Google's search data.
Arguably, it would be a lot more interesting if Google were to release search queries in the range of, say, the 50-150 most popular questions per city. Why? The top ten are more or less consistent across the country, with the exception of major local events.
A deep dive on Philly-area search terms would probably reveal interest the Bucks County murder case, the early impacts of the city's soda tax, the possibility of an Amazon headquarters, Kevin Hart's cheating allegations or the election of incoming District Attorney Larry Krasner. It could also just be a lot of geographic and area-specific recreational queries.
Whatever the case may be, here are Philadelphia's top 10 Google searches in 2017.
1. Hurricane Irma
2. Tom Petty
3. Bitcoin price
4. Super Bowl
5. iPhone 8
6. Roy Halladay
7. Matt Lauer
8. iPhone X
9. Charlie Murphy
10. Solar eclipse
Here's how that compares to the top 10 Google searches in the United States.
1. Hurricane Irma
2. Matt Lauer
3. Tom Petty
4. Super Bowl
5. Las Vegas shooting
6. Mayweather vs. McGregor fight
7. Solar eclipse
8. Hurricane Harvey
9. Aaron Hernandez
10. Fidget spinner
You can find all kinds of interesting year-end tidbits at Google Trends. Check out the video below for a look at how search teams reflected some of the year's biggest stories and events.
