Marseille edit
With regard to others, the search classification for the year on Google has a flavor which others do not have. More than any other tools of Web, famous search engine is the one where the Internet users are the most honest. This "digital truth drug" to resume the expression of Seth Stephens-Davidowitz invites to open, even indirectly. It is the new confessional by which the Internet user comes to light with his requests much more than on the psychoanalyst’s divan. Only in the face of our screen, we are somewhere where no one can see you actually, virtually either (those of our "friends" in the social networks) which prevent us from being ourselves. In other words, Google, it is the truth.
Research like so many reflections of the course of the world
Of course, like an information search tool, Google’s classification reflects the current events of the year as those of Facebook or YouTube (l’actualité de l’année comme ceux de Facebook or Youtube). Therefore, natural disasters as Irma hurricane or the affairs of sexual harassment and aggression (with the presence of the journalist, Matt Lauer, the producer Harvey Weinstein, the actors Kevin Spacey and Louis C. K.) occupies a special place in the world tops of Google. Other inescapable: the presence of the tech dominated by Apple and the consecutive release of the two smart-phones, iPhone 8 and iPhone X. From this point, the virtual currency Bitcoin will unmistakably have marked the year because the term is in second position of Google’s search of the category "Global New" behind Irma hurricane but in front of the slaughter of Las Vegas, North Korea and the total solar eclipse.
Cock-a-doodle-do: the French presidential election is the one of terms produced most traffic in 2017 in the world. Unsurprisingly, the song "Despacito" and the series Strangers Things dominate their respective category. In the cinema’s domain, it is the "young" horror movie "It" which is against blockbusters featuring the great heroines and hero like Wonder Woman or Justice League.
Google requests "made in France "
In France, the research connected to the current events was dominated by the death of the singer Johnny Hallyday, which in a few days, exceeded all other themes of the year. Rather logically, the Internet users got the words of her songs to remember the artist and pay homage to her. That is why "I promise you", "That I love you" and "The desire" represent in the 5 top song lyrics the most searched on Google. The Release horror, it is the erotic romance "50 nuances of Grey" and its continuation which dominates the cinema classification. While Game of thrones takes everything on its passage in the "serial" category, the French were passionate about the miracle of the Brazilian soccer Neymar and his transfer in the PSG at the highest prize.
Connoted search?
But, as it said the series X-Files, "the truth is somewhere else". It is in the daily search apparently trivial which can say a lot to us as individual and community. While the political personality the most Google in 2017 is the President Emmanuel Macron, the most searched definition is the one of "oligarchy". How to interpret it? Simple neutral collection of information? Consequence of the electoral terms? Or revealing element of the spirit of the period and the perception which the French population has the political world? Difficult to sound consciousnesses (or the statistics of Google!) even if we note that the question "how to cast a blank vote is second search "how", Behind the most innocent "how to make of the slime". And that the "kingly" term susceptible to imply a certain conception of the State is the third definition the most searched for this year. As a reminder, the top 2016 was less politicized with the empathy, bipolar, pragmatic and resilient words.
We find this political consonance in the United States where three of the most researched definitions are DACA (for "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals", the name of this program adopted by Obama administration which allows to settle the situation of young people entered illegally in the United States), Antifa (which indicates movement antifascist, more visible this year after the confrontations which set them to the white supremacists to Charlottesville and Heather Heyer's murder by one of the latter) and neutrality of the net.
To finish, we cannot leave untold a "heavy" tendency this year to the beam of the recipes: the domination without sharing of the potato with the tartiflette, the scalloped potatoes and aligot.
Article written by Thierry Randretsa