Google discloses top trending searches in 2022

What a year it was, and amid all the news – good or bad – the one thing Americans wanted to do, or at least attempt, was figure out their daily five-letter word puzzle in six tries.

Wordle was the most popular trending search of 2022 in the US, according to data Google released Wednesday. The word guessing game that has users guess one random five-letter word each day took off in popularity in January, with social media timelines flooded with users sharing their results, USA Today reported on December 7.

Second was election results, likely of the 2022 midterm elections. Third was Betty White, America’s favorite senior citizen who died on the final day of of 2021.

Election results were also the top news search of the year, followed by the death of Queen Elizabeth and Ukraine as the invasion of Russian forces continues.

As for the top trending searched person of the year, it was Johnny Depp, who won a defamation lawsuit he filed, accusing ex-spouse Amber Heard of defaming him in a 2018 op-ed. Second on the list was Will Smith, who slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars after Rock made a joke about Smith' wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Heard was third on the list.

Google's data was taken from Jan. 1 through Nov. 27. The company defines trending items as "searches that had a high spike in traffic over a sustained period in 2022 as compared to 2021."