Google Trends data for 2018 reflects people's everyday search queries, but also the moments, ideas, interests and questions that made users visit the world's largest search engine.

According to Google, 2018 saw a number of major elections around the world—in the U.S. the top searched “how to” question was “how to register to vote.” In a year when we said goodbye to many cultural icons, like Anthony Bourdain and Aretha Franklin, people searched for how they, too, could influence the next generation, asking "how to be a good role model." And when first responders rescued a team of soccer players from a cave in Thailand, the world was inspired — searches for “scuba diving lessons near me” increased by 110% that week.

The top trending search term of 2018 was 'World Cup.'

People also searched for good news of championships, medal counts and royal weddings, and sought out bright spots throughout the year. Users also searched for how to be a good citizen, how to be a good friend, and how to be a good dancer. (Perhaps with the help of some Fortnite GIFs.)

People were hedging their bets against the possibility of a well functioning democracy, searching for how to play Mega Millions, how to buy Ripple, how to buy Bitcoin and how to play Powerball. They also searched for how to get the old Snapchat back and how to get boogie down emote (?) so at least if that quick pick doesn't pay out they can still enjoy emoting on Snapchat. People also wanted to know where Villanova University is. Other trending searches were lelated to searching for the location of Parkland, Florida as well as where hurricane Michael and Florence were located.

In the "What is...?" category of searches, the two mosy popular questions were "What is Bitcoin?" and "What is Racketeering?". The rest of the 'what is' list includes What is Fortnite (Battle Royale 101), what is Good Friday (Religion 202), what is a duck boat (WWII History) and what is Yanny Laurel (Audio Sciences).

You can exlpore the top trending lists this year at Google.com/2018. The available lists are based on search terms that had the highest spike this year as compared to the previous year.