These 5 news stories topped Google search this year
Data released by Google Monday revealed what news events people were Googling most in 2023, and the results are dreary.
Severe weather, mass shootings, war and other tragic events topped the list.
Hurricanes dominated what Americans were searching about most in the news cycle this year, but the devastating storms didn’t take the top two spots.
Other news stories that were among the top 10 most searched about were the mass shooting in Maine in October that led to a days-long manhunt (No. 6); the school shooting at a Christian elementary school in Nashville in March (No. 7); the Aug. 8 fire that spread rapidly across Maui, becoming the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history (No. 8); Bryan Kohberger’s ongoing murder trial in Idaho (No. 9); and the Canadian wildfires that brought so much smoke to the U.S. in the summer (No. 10).
Here were the top five news stories that people were Googling this year:
5. Hurricane Lee
Lee hit a large area of New England in mid September, killing one person and wiping out power to more than 10% of electricity customers in Maine.
With all the major storms on Google's trending list, people were searching to see live trackers and when to expect the storm to arrive.
Lee started as a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean days before, but hit the United States and parts of Canada as a "post-tropical cyclone" with winds of about 70 mph.
Climate scientists say that storms like Hurricane Lee could become more common in the future as the Gulf of Maine and other bodies of water rapidly warm.
READ AGAIN: Lee lashes Maine, Canada with whipping winds, heavy rain as thousands remain without power
4. Hurricane Idalia
A few weeks earlier, Idalia made landfall on Aug. 30 and caused significant damage across parts of the southeastern U.S., particularly Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Hurricane Idalia peaked as a Category 4 hurricane and made landfall as a dangerous Category 3 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of over 125 mph and a storm surge predicted to reach as high as 15 feet in some areas.
READ AGAIN: Idalia's wrath continues across Southeast with flooding in Charleston following historic Florida landfall
3. Hurricane Hilary
And, just a few days before that, Los Angeles was making headlines across the country as it anticipated Hurricane Hilary.
The storm warranted a tropical storm warning in Southern California for the first time and entered the history books as the first tropical storm to hit the area in 84 years.
It arrived in California on Aug. 20 as a tropical storm, downgraded from the Category 4 hurricane it once was, and brought flash floods, mudslides, high winds and power outages.
READ AGAIN: Hurricane Hilary: 'This is a storm everyone needs to take very seriously,' NWS says
2. Titanic submarine
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Outside of the weather, the missing Titanic submersible dominated the headlines and peoples’ curiosity for several days in June.
Specifically, Americans were Googling about some of the prominent people aboard – the British businessman Hamish Harding and the Pakistani philanthropist Shahzada Dawood, and the game controller seen navigating OceanGate’s vessel.
The sub was reported overdue the night of Sunday, June 18, and international rescuers raced against the clock for the next few days trying to find any sign of the vessel before its 96-hour oxygen supply would run out.
Crews were scouring an area twice the size of Connecticut in waters 2 1/2 miles deep.
In this U.S. Coast Guard handout, a Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina HC-130 Hercules airplane flies over the French research vessel, LAtalante approximately 900 miles East of Cape Cod during the search for the 21-foot submersibl
Hours after the oxygen was expected to run out, the morning of Thursday, June 22, officials announced a debris field had been found near the wreckage of the Titanic that contained pieces of the submersible. The submersible was said to have imploded, killing all five people on board.
READ AGAIN: Missing submersible imploded near Titanic wreckage, leaving no survivors, Coast Guard says
RELATED: Titanic shipwreck: A look at notable people, companies who have made the expedition
1. War in Israel and Gaza
The war in Israel has been in the news cycle since the historic Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
People have been Googling the death toll in Gaza and about Israel’s map software and the reported Hamas tunnels.
"Israel Palestine explains" was also No. 5 in Google’s top "explained" search topics of the year.
With the war in its third month, Israel has pledged to keep fighting until it removes Hamas from power, dismantles its military capabilities and returns all of the hostages taken by militants during Hamas' surprise attack into Israel that ignited the war.
The U.S. has provided unwavering diplomatic and military support for the campaign, even as it has urged Israel to minimize civilian casualties and further mass displacement.
The war has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians – nearly 18,000, according to the Health Ministry – and driven nearly 85% of the territory's 2.3 million people from their homes.
READ AGAIN: ‘Like something from James Bond': What we know about Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel
READ MORE: US vetoes UN resolution calling for ceasefire in Gaza
This story was reported from Detroit. The Associated Press contributed.