Powerball beats Pokemon as Google’s top search, Beyonce tops the pops

NEW YORK CITY: Pokemon Go, the iphone7 and Donald Trump are among Google’s top trending searches globally of 2016, but in the US no subject ranked higher than Powerball.

The multi-state lottery’s record $US1.6 billion ($A2.2 billion) prize in January and $US429 million payout in June had ticket holders Googling winning numbers and landed Powerball the number one spot on Google’s top 10 list for the US in 2016.

Prince’s death in April made him the second-highest trending overall topic in the US and top-trending globally on the list of celebrities who died in 2016.

Mobile app Pokemon Go was the top searched trending topic around the world with gamers frequently Googling tips on how to catch Pokemon and how to battle them as well. Hillary Clinton again finished runner-up to Trump on the list of top-searched people globally and in the US the presidential election also prompted one of Google’s trending how to searches of the year. “How to move to Canada” was ranked number five. Netflix’s binge-worthy programming led the TV list in the US with Stranger Things, Making a Murderer and Fuller House grabbing the top three spots.

In music, Beyonce had a big year on stage and online. The performer was the top trending search in the US on Google’s musicians list and her hit Formation was the top trending song.

In the US following Powerball and Prince, the top trending searches were Hurricane Matthew, Pokeman.go, Slither.io, Olympics, David Bowie, Trump, the election, and Clinton.