Earthquakes, typhoons most searched for terms on Google Taiwan in 2024

Taipei, Dec. 10 (CNA) "Earthquakes," "typhoons" and former Taipei Mayor "Ko Wen-je (柯文哲)" are the top three most-searched-for items on Google in Taiwan over the past year.

The announcement on Tuesday came as part of Google's "Year in Search 2024" review for Taiwan, which ranked the most popular entries on its search engine from December 2023 through the end of November this year.

In a press release, the Google review revealed that the keywords "Olympics" and "U.S. presidential election" rounded out the top-five list.

Ranking sixth and seventh are "00940," the ticker symbol for Yuanta Taiwan High Dividend ETF, and "Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷)," Taiwan's gold medalist in women's boxing at the Paris Games.

Moving down the list, Taiwan-based ticketing platform "tixCraft" came in eighth, while Taiwanese movie "The Pig, The Snake and The Pigeon" and baseball championship "WBSC Premier12" were ranked ninth and 10th, respectively.

The review also highlighted trending slang, with "M3" claiming the top spot. Pronounced as "M san," the term is said to mimic the sound of the phrase "You know what I'm saying?" spoken in a mix of Chinese and English.

In addition, the European folklore-inspired term "goblin" has become a term of self-deprecation or humor, often used to describe individuals perceived as not conforming to mainstream beauty standards or lacking social confidence.