The World Cup, the movie “Black Panther,” Meghan Markle and the deaths of several famous people are among the most popular Google searches of 2018.
The search engine company this week released its yearly ranking of search terms that had the highest growth in comparison to the year before.
The World Cup final between France and Croatia is at the top of Google’s list.
The second- and third-most popular search topics were for the young musicians Avicii and Mac Miller. Both died in 2018. Sweden’s Avicii started his music career at the age of 16. He retired after 10 years and killed himself in April at the age of 29. American singer Mac Miller died of a drug overdose in September. He was only 26 years old.
Stan Lee and Spider-Man
Stan Lee took the fourth spot on the list. He was the creator of famous comic book characters like Spider-Man, the Hulk and Black Panther. He died in November at the age of 95.
“Black Panther” was the fifth-most searched term. The superhero movie broke box office records around the world. It was also the most-tweeted-about movie ever.
The much-discussed May wedding of Britain’s Prince Harry and American actor Meghan Markle landed Markle in sixth place on Google’s 2018 list.
American cook and television personality Anthony Bourdain, musician XXXTentacion, scientist Stephen Hawking and fashion designer Kate Spade also were among the top 10 Google searches.
Bourdain and Spade both killed themselves in June -- within the same one-week period. Their suicides led to strong calls for more mental health treatment and suicide prevention efforts.
Hai Do wrote this story for Learning English. Ashley Thomson was the editor.
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Words in This Story
overdose - n. an amount of drug that is too much and usually dangerous
topic - n. someone or something that people talk or write about
personality - n. a person who is famous
comic - adj. causing laughter or amusement
character - n. a person who appears in a story, book, movie ...
fashion - n. a business of creating and selling clothes