Austrian drag queen beats ISIL online

ANKARA

More people searched online for an Austrian drag queen than for the infamous Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant rebel group in 2014, according to Google.

On Tuesday, the Internet giant revealed its list of highest trending people, places and things which users searched for – with Eurovision-winning cross-dresser Conchita Wurst proving more popular than the Sunni extremist militia.

Online searches for the American actor and comedian Robin Williams, who took his own life last August, topped Google’s list of top 2014 trending global search terms.

The list includes those terms which saw the largest rise in 2014 compared to 2013, rather than the most frequent searches.

Google said that the impact of Williams’ suicide was so great that it prompted people to seek information about mental health.

“Searches for 'depression’ increased by three times, followed by ‘depression symptoms’ and ‘depression test’,” Google said.

The globe’s biggest sports event in 2014 – the FIFA World Cup – sits in second place while searches for the Ebola virus are in third.

“In October, searches for 'Ebola' were 76 times higher than in March when reports first appeared,” Google said.

Google said also that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant was among the top 2014 trending search terms globally.

“The group dominated the headlines after a series of attacks against civilians, causing thousands to flee their homes,” Google said, adding that “when ISIS began to besiege the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobani in September, its name jumped in search by 30 times, and 'where is kobani' peaked.”

The full Global Trending Searches list is as follows:

1. Robin Williams

2. World Cup

3. Ebola

4. Malaysia Airlines

5. ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

6. Flappy Bird

7. Conchita Wurst

8. ISIS

9. Frozen

10. Sochi Olympics

www.aa.com.tr/en