SINGAPORE: “PSI Singapore”, “Lee Kuan Yew” and “SEA Games” were among the hottest searches on Google in Singapore this year.

With the haze persisting for about two months, “PSI Singapore” became this year’s top trending search as people went online to get the latest weather news and updates.

Singapore’s founding Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew (#1 on the top trending people list) and members of his family — Ms Lee Wei Ling, Mr Lee Hsien Loong and Mr Lee Hsien Yang — were the most searched people as the nation followed the late statesman’s health.

Blogger Amos Yee, who drew attention for his criticisms of the former Prime Minister, was looked up as people kept tabs on the controversy.

The annual breakdown released today (Dec 16) ranks the inquiries that triggered the biggest spikes in traffic on Google’s dominant search engine, excluding queries about sexually explicit subjects.

Other search engines, social networking company Facebook and short messaging specialist Twitter already released their own takes on this year’s collective mindset, but Google’s is considered to be the definitive look into what is on people’s minds. That is because Google processes two out of every three search requests in the world, a position that translates into trillions of inquiries each year.

In news, the MERS outbreak in South Korea, the earthquake in Sabah, Malaysia, and Singapore’s 12th General Election were the hottest.

“SG 50” and “SEA Games” were also among the top searches as Singaporeans celebrated the Jubilee year and monitored the medal tally at the SEA Games, which returned to Singapore after a 22-year hiatus.

“This year, the passing of former Prime Minister and statesman Lee Kuan Yew, along with tragedies like the Sabah earthquake struck Singaporean hearts and we went online to search for the latest on these and other global news stories,” said Google spokesperson Sana Rahman. “But this was also a year of renewal and celebration for us, as we celebrated Singapore’s 50th birthday, kept up with the 2015 elections and cheered our sportsmen and women on — all while keeping an eye on the medal tally — during the 28th SEA Games”. WITH AGENCIES

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by The Today Online

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