VSCO Girls Were Among the Top Google Searches of the Year

Google’s annual Year in Search report is here to expose all the trends we were obsessed with and/or didn’t understand in 2019.

Drawing from trillions of search bar entries, the report highlights the top Google searches of the year, cataloguing our most-asked queries in various categories, mapping the people, topics, events and places that sustained the greatest significant traffic spikes throughout 2019.

In the United States, VSCO girls were the subject of many a Google search this year, making their way into top five searches in two separate categories. While some turned to the trend for fashion inspiration, earning the search term “VSCO girl outfit” the fifth slot in Google’s “outfit ideas” category, even more people just wanted to figure out what the hell VSCO girls are in the first place, with “What is a VSCO girl” becoming Google’s second most-asked “What is…” question of the year. (If you still don’t know the answer, we had it youthsplained for you here.)

The only thing that left people more perplexed than VSCO girls this year? Area 51. According to the report, “What is Area 51” was Google’s top “What is…” question of the year, while “Where is Area 51” was the number three “Where is…” question. The term attracted massive attention, and apparently a lot of questions, earlier this year after a Facebook event announcing plans to storm U.S. Air Force facility Area 51 went viral. (If you were among the perplexed Area 51 Googlers, we’ve got a youthsplainer on that one, too.)

Other highlights from this year’s report include Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, who both made the top five most-searched actors list thanks not to their acting but rather their involvement in the college admissions scandal, and Baby Yoda, whose recent social media popularity earned him the top ranking in Google’s “babies” category, beating out actual babies belonging to the royal family, Kim Kardashian and Cardi B.

The biggest takeaway? It was a weird year to be on the internet.

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