The top Google searches of 2015 – ‘Rugby World Cup 2015’, ‘Karen Buckley’ and ‘Conor McGregor’

16 Dec 2015

Rugby World Cup 2015 dominated Ireland's top searches this year

Google’s Zeitgeist for 2015 is out and the top search terms of the year in Ireland were “Rugby World Cup 2015”, “Karen Buckley” and “Conor McGregor”.

While sports typically dominated the Irish search world in 2015 with Rugby World Cup 2015 and Conor McGregor topping the lists, the tragic murder of Karen Buckley in Scotland added a poignant aspect to this year’s lists.

The growing conflict in the Middle East and the rise of terror attacks also dominated people’s search choices, with a lot of people searching for information on issues such as the Paris attacks and Charlie Hebdo.

UFC mixed martial artist Conor McGregor had a knockout, year culminating in his 13-second knockout victory over Jose Aldo at the weekend, and his rise in popularity is evident as he came in at number three in the top trending list of searches 2015.

McGregor also topped the sports people list and the Irish public were also searching ‘How to watch McGregor fight in Ireland’.

Google revealed that Irish searchers also wanted to know more about RTE’s Operation Transformation and Eurovision 2015. Lady Colin Campbell, who starred in this year’s I’m a Celebrity…Get me out of Here! made the top 10 list followed by Jurassic World, the fastest movie to hit the $1bn mark at the box office.

Former Taoiseach Charles Haughey tops the list of top trending politicians, helped by the RTE mini-series which documented his life and was broadcast during the summer.

Minister for Health Leo Varadkar was second on the list followed by controversial US presidential candidate Donald Trump. UK politicians Ed Miliband, David Cameron and the late Charles Kennedy also feature and, possibly following his mental blank on radio, Renua Ireland’s Terence Flanagan also makes the list.

A questioning lot, “Who is Lucy the Australopithecus?” topped the list of “Who is…?” questions, following the 41st anniversary of its discovery.

The Irish also mostly wanted to know “How to use Snapchat”, which topped the How to? List, and we clearly love our pancakes, with “When is Pancake Tuesday?” topping the When is? list, and “How to make pancake mix” coming second on the How to? list.

In the world of sport, the rise of MMA stars is evident with Conor McGregor topping the Sports People list, which also features MMA star Ronda Rousey. The world of football and boxing is also well represented with Pedro and Tyson Fury appearing on the list while Rugby World Cup topped the Sporting Events list followed by Cheltenham 2015 and Wimbledon 2015.

“Our annual Year In Search survey provides a fascinating snapshot of our interests and obsessions throughout the year,” said Matt Cooke, head of Google’s News Lab in Europe.

“Homegrown celebrities have generated a lot of interest, in particular, while the passing of well-known figures made people want to learn more about them.”