Top Google searches 2015

By Lauren Kate Rawlins, ITWeb digital and innovation contributor.

Johannesburg, 17 Dec 2015

Google has announced its annual Zeitgeist, offering a unique perspective on the year's major events and hottest trends based on searches conducted on the service in South Africa and globally.

Zeitgeist means 'the spirit of the times' or the 'general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era'.

In South Africa, loadshedding, xenophobia, sport, and various celebrities topped the overall search trends' list this year.

Globally, the top tending search for 2015 was Lamar Odom, followed by Charlie Hebdo and Agar.io. Three movies made the top ten global list: Furious 7,Jurassic World and American Sniper. As well as the game, Fallout 4.

Murdered musician Flabba, actor Simba Mhere (who passed away in a car accident) and musician and producer Cassper Nyovest made the top of the Trending South African list.

Loadshedding and xenophobia topped the Trending Current Affairs SA search list. However, most of the rest of the top current affairs searches were related to global news, such as 'demonic game' Charlie Charlie, the French weekly publication targeted by a terror attack Charlie Hebdo and hacked US dating site Ashley Madison.

The late public service and administration minister Collins Chabane featured in the Trending South African, Trending Current Affairs and Trending Political Figures lists, after a fatal car accident in March. Also hitting the political figures trends list were disgraced former national police commissioner Jackie Selebi and DA leader Mmusi Maimane.

Most searched topics in South Africa 2015: