'Meghan Markle' and 'fidget spinners' top UK Google search

Meghan MarkleGetty Images

"Meghan Markle" topped the list of search terms, following her engagement to Prince Harry

By Jane Wakefield
Technology reporter

"Meghan Markle", fiancee to Prince Harry, has been revealed by Google as the top most searched term in the UK for 2017.

It puts the royal bride-to-be ahead of "iPhone 8" and "Hurricane Irma" in the list of top search terms.

The Manchester bombing and Grenfell Tower also featured in the top 10.

The UK election featured heavily in the list of top "What is...?" queries, with people asking about a hung Parliament and the Democratic Unionist Party.

"Bitcoin" became one of the year's buzzwords and "What is Bitcoin?", "How to buy Bitcoin" and "How to mine bitcoins" all appeared on trending lists, as the crypto-currency rose in value through the year.

The online lists also reflected some of the key playground trends of 2017 - including the toy known as a "fidget spinner", which made it to number four in most searched terms, and the rise in popularity of making home-made slime, which featured in the "How to..." list.

According to Google, searches beginning in "how" increased by 150% over the last decade, hitting an all-time high in 2017.

Top trending news events included the Manchester bombing and the London Bridge attack, with the top global news trends including North Korea, the Las Vegas shooting and Catalonia's bid for independence.

"People aren't only using Google Search to find information about the topics that matter to them. They're increasingly searching for ways to take action and find out how to do things - including how to donate or volunteer in moments of crisis," said Hannah Glenny, a Google Search trends expert.

Meghan Markle also featured on the top trending "people" queries, followed by Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, who died in February. Donald Trump made it to only number six on the list.

In global search, the number one most searched term was "Hurricane Irma", followed by "iPhone 8" and "iPhone X" in second and third place.

Getty Images

Fidget spinners were a hit toy of 2017 and made it to number four in most searched terms

1.Meghan Markle

2.iPhone 8

3.Hurricane Irma

4.Fidget spinner

5.Manchester bombing

6.Grenfell Tower

7.13 Reasons Why

8.Tara Palmer-Tomkinson

9.Shannon Matthews

10.iPhone X

1. What is a hung Parliament?

2. What is an exit poll?

3. What is the Confederations Cup?

4. What is Bitcoin?

5. What is the Antikythera mechanism?

6. What is a pangolin?

7. What is a general election?

8. What is waterboarding?

9. What is the DUP?

10. What is Pink's real name?

1.Hurricane Irma

2.iPhone 8

3.iPhone X

4.Matt Lauer

5.Meghan Markle

6.13 Reasons Why

7.Tom Petty

8.Fidget Spinner

9.Chester Bennington

10.India National Cricket Team

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