Malaysia’s Elections, iPhones XS, Black Panther, Stan Lee, the World Cup…Singapore’s biggest Google searches for 2018

Google just released its Year in Search, the annual lists of trending searches each year. Singapore’s top ten trending searches for 2018 says a lot about the country.

The number one spot is decidedly non-political, yet the list shows that people in Singapore like to know what’s going on in the world.

Google said in a statement, “In a year filled with events that toppled long-existing conventions, the top trending searches revealed that Singaporeans are greatly interested in current affairs.”

Let’s round out the top 5 trending searches in the country:

5. Stan Lee—aka Marvel Comics’ well-beloved founding father, who died on November 12 at the age of 95. The multi-awarded American comic book writer is responsible for superhero favorites such as Spider-Man, Thor, the X-Men, and Iron Man.

4. Najib Razak— Najib, who served as Prime Minister from 2009 to 2018 was arrested on July 3 over his involvement in the  1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB)  scandal, and together with his wife, Rosmah, faces multiple charges in Malaysia’s courts.

3. Australian Open 2018—Apparently Singaporeans are big tennis fans! This year’s Australian Open, which was held early in the year, by mid-January. Roger Federer and Caroline Wozniacki took home the trophies in the first Grand Slam tournament of this year’s season.

2. Malaysia’s Elections. This year’s runner-up were the elections in Malaysia, held in May. The  Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition in this year’s elections, after being in power for more than six decades, was succeeded by the Pakatan Harapan (PN) coalition, headed by Dr. Tun Mahathir Mohammad, who became Prime Miniter again at the age of 92.

1. World Cup. Every four years the whole world catches football fever, and apparently, Singapore is no exception. This year’s Cup, which was held in Russia, featured unexpected defeats (Germany first-round exit), and sweet surprises (England and Croatia getting as far as they did). Oh, by the way, France won.

Here are the number one searches in the other categories of Google’s 2018 Year in Search for Singapore:

• Top Trending Local News—Trump-Kim summit
• Top Trending Gadgets—iPhone XS
• Top Trending Movies—Black Panther
• Top Trending Events—Comex 2018
• Top Trending TV Shows—Story of Yanxi Palace
• Top Trending Sporting News—World Cup
• Top Trending Farewells—Stan Lee