Google apparently gets over 1.2 trillion searches every year. And using those 1.2 trillion searches, Google can reveal a lot about important trends in society. Instead of using that information for evil, Google has decided to make it public through a feature called Zeitgeist.
Well, Google recently released their 2012 version of Zeitgeist which highlights all of the weird and whacky terms we’ve searched for over the past twelve months.
For those who are interested, the top search term of 2012 was Whitney Houston, the American signer who died in February. Following Whitney were Gangnam Style, Hurricane Sandy, iPad 3, and Diablo 3, all of which comprised the top five global search terms of the year.

Here are some other top search terms as explained by Google’s 2012 Zeitgeist:
Top 3 image searches:
1) One Direction
2) Selena Gomez
3) iPhone 5
Top 3 athlete searches:
1) Jeremy Lin
2) Michael Phelps
3) Peyton Manning
Top 3 event searches:
1) Hurricane Sandy
2) Kate Middleton pictures released
3) Olympics 2012
Top 3 people searches:
1) Whitney Houston
2) Kate Middleton
3) Amanda Todd
Top 3 film searches:
1) The Hunger Games
2) Skyfall
3) Prometheus
Top 3 TV show searches:

1) BBB12 (Big Brother Brasil)
2) Avenida Brasil
3) Here Comes Honey Boo Boo
Top 3 consumer electronics searches:
1) iPad 3
2) Samsung Galaxy S3
3) iPad Mini
Top 3 Google+ Hashtags (yes, that’s right – not Twitter hashtags)
1) #SOPA
2) #Awesome
3) #Sandy
Whether you’re disappointed by what people are searching for or encouraged, there’s no doubt that Google Zeitgeist provides an interesting cross-section of society’s behavior.
You can check out the full list of Zeitgeist search terms by clicking here. You can also view trends by country. For example, in Canada, the number 4 trending “What is…” search term was “What is Yolo” and in Uganda, the number 5 trending search term for “What is…” was “what is language.”