Top Bing UK Searches for 2013

What did the UK search for in 2013? Based on the aggregation of millions of search queries, we are unveiling the top search trends in the UK for 2013.

Here’s what we found:

Most Searched Person of the Year

  • Battle of the power women – Beyonce beats Kate Middleton to the top spot for the most-searched for woman on Bing this year
  • Justin Bieber is the UK’s most searched for person this year on Bing, moving up from 5th place in 2012 however women reign supreme, making up nine of the top ten. Interestingly, majority of these women are brunettes including Beyonce, Kate Middleton, Selena Gomez and Nicole Scherzinger
  • Kate Middleton, Justin Bieber, Rihanna and Kim Kardashian amongst the most searched for celebrities for the second year in a row

Top ten:

Rank

2013

2012

1

Justin Bieber

Tulisa Contostavlos

2

Beyonce

Kate Middleton

3

Kate Middleton

Cheryl Cole

4

Selena Gomez

Whitney Houston

5

Nicole Scherzinger

Justin Bieber

6

Rihanna

Prince Harry

7

Kim Kardashian

Robert Pattinson

8

Taylor Swift

Rihanna

9

Emma Watson

Kim Kardashian

10

Kelly Brook

Jimmy Savile

Most searched for films

  • Film sequels are more searched for than original films with Iron Man 3, Kick-Ass 2 and Despicable Me making up the top three most searched for films of 2013
  • The two most searched for films are superhero films, keeping up the trend, as Avengers was number one last year and Dark Knight Rises number six
  • Is Britain falling out of love with rom-coms as none appear in the Top 10 film searches of 2013?

Top ten:

Rank

2013

2012

1

Iron Man 3

The Avengers

2

Kick-Ass 2

The Hunger Games

3

Despicable Me 2

Prometheus

4

The Conjuring

Skyfall

5

Oblivion

Twilight Breaking Dawn II

6

Diana

Dark Knight Rises

7

Star Trek into Darkness

The Amazing Spiderman

8

Fast and Furious 6

Snow White & The Huntsman

9

The Croods

Taken 2

10

Man of Steel

The Dictator

Most searched for television show

  • British soaps have proven more popular than reality TV programmes as Coronation Street and EastEnders are more searched for than Big Brother. Coronation Street has even re-claimed the top spot moving up from the fourth spot last year whereas Big Brother has dropped from second spot to third this year
  • Local, British programmes are the most searched, making up nine of the top ten
  • A slip in searches for X Factor, from third position last year to 12th position this year implies the nation could be tiring of the talent show style TV programmes

Top 10:

Rank

2013

2012

1

Coronation Street

EastEnders

2

Eastenders

Big Brother

3

Big Brother

X Factor

4

Doctor Who

Doctor Who

5

Game of Thrones

Coronation Street

6

Emmerdale

Strictly Come Dancing

7

Daybreak

The Only Way Is Essex

8

Celebrity Big Brother

Celebrity Big Brother

9

This Morning

Game of Thrones

10

Top Gear

The Walking Dead

Most searched for sports person and team

  • Arsenal is in the top spot for most searched for sports teams, echoing the current Premier League table
  • Is red the new black? the top three most searched teams all play in red
  • Britain’s football obsession continued in 2013 as football teams and players make up majority of 2013 sport searches with Lionel Messi being the most searched for sports star replacing Victoria Pendelton who was the most searched for sports person of 2012. Mo Farah is also the only non-footballer to make the top five in 2013.
  • Gareth Bale is the most searched for British Sportsman, knocking Victoria Pendelton from her top place in 2012.

Top 10 Sportspeople:

Rank

2013

2012

1

Lionel Messi

Victoria Pendleton

2

Luis Suarez

Usain Bolt

3

Gareth Bale

Andy Murray

4

Mo Farah

Fabrice Muamba

5

Rio Ferdinand

Jessica Ennis

6

Eden Hazard

Tom Daley

7

Robin Van Persie

Cristiano Ronaldo

8

Frank Lampard

Lance Armstrong

9

Chris Froome

David Beckham

10

Wilfried Zaha

Mo Farah

Top 10 Sports Teams:

1. Arsenal

2. Liverpool

3. Manchester United

4. Chelsea

5. Leeds United

6. Everton

7. Tottenham Hotspur

8. Nottingham Forest

9. Aston Villa

10. Barcelona

Most searched for News stories of the Year

  • Britain adores the Royal Family and this was proven with the birth of Prince George being the UK’s top searched for news story on Bing this year. Other key news stories included the Boston Marathon Bombing, Syria conflict and gay marriage.
  • Syrian conflict is still a topic of concern for Brits as the fourth most searched for news story. It was the second most searched for story last last year

Top 10:

1. Royal baby born

2. Jimmy Saville

3. Boston Marathon Bombing

4. Syria

5. Zimmerman found not guilty

6. Obama inauguration

7. Fiscal cliff

8. Gay marriage (UK)

9. Supreme Court rules on Gay Marriage (June)

10. Snowden on run from US

Most search for music artists

  • Brit boys One Direction take the top spot of most searched for music artists, knocking Justin Bieber off the podium
  • Beyonce is most searched for female music artist on Bing, beating Rihanna (fourth), Taylor Swift (fifth) and Selena Gomez (sixth)
  • The most searched for songs of 2013 are Thrift Shop by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, followed by Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke and Cruise by Florida Georgia Line

Top 10 Artists

Rank

Artist

1

One Direction

2

Justin Bieber

3

Beyonce

4

Rihanna

5

Taylor Swift

6

Selena Gomez

7

Nicki Minaj

8

Miley Cyrus

9

The Coral

10

Katy Perry

Top 10 Songs

Rank

Song

1

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – Thrift Shop

2

Robin Thicke- Blurred Lines

3

Florida Georgia Line – Cruise

4

Daft Punk – Get Lucky

5

Avicii – Wake Me Up

6

Justin Timberlake – Mirrors

7

Katy Perry – Roar

8

Rihanna – Stay

9

Miley Cyrus – We Can’t Stop

10

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – Same Love

Most searched for travel

  • European countries top list of most desired holiday destinations with France, Spain, Italy the most searched for
  • London, Manchester and Edinburgh are the most searched for staycations amongst Brits

Top 10 international holiday destinations

Rank

Place

1

France

2

Spain

3

Italy

4

Greece

5

The Caribbean

6

Hawaii

7

Jamaica

8

Croatia

9

Cayman Islands

10

Mauritius

Top 10 staycations

Rank

Place

1

London

2

Manchester

3

Edinburgh

4

Bristol

5

Birmingham

6

Leeds

7

Cornwall

8

Newcastle

9

Cardiff

10

Brighton

Most searched for fashion labels of the year

  • Burberry, Victoria Beckham and Vivienne Westwood are most searched for British fashion labels, beaten by Hermes, Ralph Lauren and Gucci in the top spot, proving that French labels are the most popular

Top ten designer labels

Rank

Place

1

Hermes

2

Ralph Lauren

3

Gucci

4

Burberry

5

Victoria Beckham

6

Vivienne Westwood

7

Michael Kors

8

Chanel

9

Hugo Boss

10

Paul Smith

Most searched for electronic devices

  • Xbox is the most searched for electronic device with PlayStation coming in eighth, indicating there is more interest in the new Xbox One console
  • iPhone is the most searched for phone

Top ten

Rank

Place

1

Xbox

2

iPhone

3

iPad

4

Windows Phone

5

HTC

6

Nexus

7

Kindle Fire

8

PlayStation

9

Surface

10

Nintendo

Most searched for social media

  • Twitter has replaced YouTube as most searched for social network in 2013
  • LinkedIn moved from third to second spot – showing the importance of business connections as the UK continues to work its way out of recession
  • Netflix is the most searched for streaming site, ahead of iTunes and Project Free TV and Vimeo has replaced YouTube as most searched for video clip steaming site

Rank

2013

2012

1

Twitter

YouTube

2

Linkedin

Twitter

3

Skype

LinkedIn

4

Facebook

Tumblr

5

tumblr

Spotify

6

Instagram

Instagram

7

Pinterest

Pinterest

8

Reddit

Myspace

9

Spotify

Instagram

10

Vimeo

WordPress

Most searched for streaming site

Rank

Streaming Entertainment

1

Netflix

2

iTunes

3

Project Free TV

4

Spotify

5

Vimeo

6

Pandora

7

Google Play

8

Xbox Live

9

YouTube

10

Last.fm

Interested in how the UK searches on Bing compared to other countries around the world? Check it out the top Bing searches in 2013 for Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, and Spain for yourself at http://bingtrends.com.

Happy New Year!

– The Bing Team