The Late Whitney Houston Was The Year's Hottest Search

By Mark Memmott

Published December 13, 2012 at 7:33 AM PST

The Feb. 11 death of singing superstar Whitney Houston sent her fans rushing to the Web, Google says in Year-End Zeitgeist Report about things that "piqued your curiosity" in 2012.

Her name is atop Google's most-searched lists in three categories — general searches, people and performing artists.

Houston got more attention than "Gangnam style," "Hurricane Sandy," the presidential election and even "Kate Middleton pictures released."

Google notes that:

"While it might not be surprising to see that tragic natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy ranked highly (#3 on the global trending list), it is reassuring to find searches like [donate to Sandy] spiking as well."

By the way, it appears many Two-Way readers enjoy year-end lists.

Mark Memmott

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.

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