A ton of people googled Area 51 in 2019
2019 was a banner year for aliens — from the "Storm Area 51" Facebook event to the good memes to the surprisingly wholesome Alienstock event — but it seems that some of us wondered what all the fuss was about.
On Wednesday, Google released its annual Year in Search roundup, which revealed, among other things, that people were very interested in Disney+ and Baby Yoda. But internet culture drove a lot of searches this year, too: Terms related to Area 51, for instance, appeared in four of Google's highlighted search categories.
"Area 51 raid" was ranked fourth among news-related terms (where were y'all at the event, then?), and "What is Area 51" ranked number one in English-language "What is" searches and number 4 in Spanish-language "Que es" searches. "Where is Area 51" also appeared at number 3 in the "Where is" category.
You May Also Like
"Clap alien cheeks" was not ranked in any category, which is disappointing.
Teen culture was also a clear driver of search this year, particularly in the "Outfit ideas" category. Four of the top five terms — "eboy outfit," "egirl outfit," "soft girl outfit," and "VSCO girl outfit" — are all common tropes. The fifth ("biker shorts outfit"), while not an archetype in the same way, fits right in. There are a lot of bike shorts on TikTok.
Topics Google
Chloe was the shopping editor at Mashable. She was also previously a culture reporter. You can follow her on Twitter at @chloebryan.
