Bieber song tops Google’s ‘Year in Search’ list
Pop culture references led by a song released by Justin Bieber dominated the list of trending searches in the Philippines, according to technology giant Google.
Bieber’s song Love Yourself was the most searched term in Google Philippines in 2016, based on the #YearInSearch list released by the company yesterday. Following Love Yourself are game applications
slither.io and Pokemon Go, which sent shockwaves in the gaming industry this year. Slither.io is a multiplayer game that resonates the classic presmartphone mobile game Snake, requiring players to collect gems and defeating other snakes to grow theirs.
Pokemon Go, meanwhile, was a highly-anticipated virtual reality game that brought players to the world of pocket monsters, allowing them to catch virtual creatures through their smartphones.
Google Philippines said the results of the overall trending list reaffirmed Filipino’s love for pop culture.
Other pop culture terms in the most searched list included hit Korean zombie film Train to Busan (fourth), chart toppers Closer by Chainsmokers (fifth) and Secret Love Song by Little Mix and Jason Derulo (eighth) and the film Suicide Squad (10th).
Completing the Top 10 are COMELEC (sixth), Rodrigo Duterte (seventh) and Olympic Games Rio 2016 (ninth).
“From pressing issues, to sports, to entertain- ment, this year’s list shows that Filipinos continue to take part in different conversations by keeping themselves informed about what’s happening around them, not just locally but also internationally,” said Gail Tan, head of communications and public affairs of Google Philippines.
“Year in Search is Google’s way of celebrating the year with the Filipinos with the things they cared about,” she added.
Duterte, who was elected as President in May, topped the most searched male personality, while Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach was the most searched female personality.
They were followed by Korean star Song Joong Ki and US president-elect Donald Trump for the male personality and internet-sensation-turned-host/actress Maine Mendoza and actress Margot Robbie for the female personality.
Election 2016 topped the news category and was second in the events category following the Rio Olympics.
Like Duterte and the Rio Olympics, most of the terms in the overall trending list also topped their respective categories: Love Yourself for song,
Slither.io for games and Train to Busan for films. Other category top-notchers were Kalanggaman Island for local vacation destinations; Barcelona, Spain for international vacation destinations; and Descendants of the Sun for TV shows.