Search giant Google just released its annual end-of-year report, highlighting the top trending searches of 2017.
Of course, most of the results point to major news-related events that dominated the culture over the course of the year: Hurricane Irma, Matt Lauer, Tom Petty, the Super Bowl and the Las Vegas shooting are the top five searches nationally for the year.
On a global level Hurricane Irma topped the list of searches, followed by iPhone 8 (boring), iPhone X (of course), Matt Lauer (interesting) and Meghan Markle (duh).
Basically, the report is pretty... predictable?
The results do get interesting when broken down by category. Specifically, on the national level, people that started their search query with "How to..." actually ended up looking for some very interesting information. Find below the ten most searched "how to" queries on Google:
1. How to make slime
2. How to make solar eclipse glasses
3. How to watch the solar eclipse
4. How to watch Mayweather vs McGregor
5. How to buy Bitcoin
6. How to freeze your credit
7. How to solve a Rubik cube
8. How to make a fidget spinner
9. How to cook turkey in the oven
10. How to screen record
Besides some obvious searches (what even is Bitcoin?) involving the much-chronicled solar eclipse and Mayweather/McGregor fight, a few of these are incredibly funny (and sad).
Take "how to make slime"—apparently, the most searched "how to" query. Was there recently some sort of slime-making national tournament? How about "how to solve a Rubik cube?" What does Googling the solution to a game whose entire essence involves getting solved without any help say about our country?
We'll gladly skip over an analysis of what having "how to cook turkey in the oven" on this list really means.
Ah, America—we love you.