To celebrate 10 years of Creator Weekly, I’m sharing tech highlights from 2015 that still resonate 10 years later. This update was for the week ending December 19, 2015.
The opening scene of Google's Year on Search in 2015 shows the question "how can i help the refugees".
It goes on to highlight some of the top events of 2015.
The video also opens with a boat on the open water. But it's not refugees. It's a man who quit his job, sold his possessions, and is sailing around the world with his cat. The search overlay asks, "where should I start if I want to completely reimagine my life”?
Events highlighted in the video include the new American Pope, terrible wildfires in Los Angeles, flooding in Texas, and the killing of Charlie Kirk. And, of course, "new AI breakthroughs [that] captured people's imaginations."
With new AI capabilities in Google Search, people asked questions in more conversational ways, like they would while talking to a friend. This year, we saw people asking “What’s the deal with…” queries more than ever.
Google Trends: Year in Search 2015
Ten years ago this week, Google released their annual Year in Search video,
with the theme "the questions we asked revealed who we are", with a focus on inclusion, diversity and community.
This year the Year in Search focused mainly on pop culture and "reimagining your life".
It shouldn't be a surprise that what is essentially a glossy ad for Google Search highlights the positive and reflects changing times.
People Searching for Ways to Help
Google's Year in Search video for 2015 opens with the statement “In 2015 the questions we asked revealed who we are”. The opening scene shows a crowded boat on the open water, and the search question "how can I help the refugees?"
As Google introduced it:
From devastation to empowerment and tragedy to hope, our 15th annual Year in Search uncovers the moments that captured the world’s hearts—and questions that revealed who we are. From “How can I help Nepal” to “How can the world find peace?” here’s a look back at 2015, through the lens of Google search.
It goes on to highlight some of the top events of 2015.
The video tells you something about
Google as a company, because they had to choose which stories, and whose stories to
highlight in the two minute video.
There were people supporting each other after devastating attacks and natural disasters like the huge earthquake in Nepal.
There was a celebration of social change, including the US Supreme Court ruling for same-sex marriage, #ilooklikeanengineer women and non-binary engineers telling their stories, the confederate flag removed from the South Carolina statehouse, the Black Lives Matter movement and Caitlyn Jenner coming out as transgender.
There were people supporting each other after devastating attacks and natural disasters like the huge earthquake in Nepal.
There was a celebration of social change, including the US Supreme Court ruling for same-sex marriage, #ilooklikeanengineer women and non-binary engineers telling their stories, the confederate flag removed from the South Carolina statehouse, the Black Lives Matter movement and Caitlyn Jenner coming out as transgender.
The highlighted searches (the full list of included events is in the video description):
- How can I help the refugees? (Syrian refugee crisis)
- Why can't women be army Rangers? (First two female soldiers graduate Army Rangers School)
- What does the Confederate flag stand for? (Confederate flag removed from SC Statehouse)
- How can we overcome prejudice? (Black Lives Matter, #ilooklikeanengineer)
- Why was there a Cuban embargo? (Cuban Embargo lift, reversed by the Trump administration in 2017)
- What color is The Dress? (Spoiler: it's blue and black)
- How can the world find peace? (Je Suis Charlie, Kenyan vigil, Beirut vigil, Paris vigil in London)
- Are you born transgender? (Caitlyn Jenner at the ESPYs receiving the Arthur Ashe Courage Award after coming out as transgender)
- How can we rebuild Nepal? (Aid for Nepal after the Gorkha earthquake killed almost 10,000 people.)
YouTube's annual Rewind video explored the same themes:
In 2015, you introduced the world to the latest dance crazes, opened up discussions about diversity and inclusion, and lip-synced in cars and onstage in front of millions.
And Twitter's 2015 recap highlighted similar cultural events, including #JeSuisParis, #BlackLivesMatter, #RefugeesWelcome, #Election2015 (UK and US), #CaitlynJenner, #IStandWithAhmed, #LoveWins, along with #PlutoFlyby, #FIFAWWC, and #TheDress.
It felt like times were changing.
The view from 2025: Reimagine your life
The 2025 Year in Search video opens with the question
"where should I start if I want to completely reimagine my life?"
"where should I start if I want to completely reimagine my life?"
A decade later, the 2025 Year in Search has a different vibe.
The video also opens with a boat on the open water. But it's not refugees. It's a man who quit his job, sold his possessions, and is sailing around the world with his cat. The search overlay asks, "where should I start if I want to completely reimagine my life”?
The theme is "ways to
rediscover, reinvent, and rethink what’s possible."
Events highlighted in the video include the new American Pope, terrible wildfires in Los Angeles, flooding in Texas, and the killing of Charlie Kirk. And, of course, "new AI breakthroughs [that] captured people's imaginations."
The searches it highlights:
- Where should I start if I want to completely reimagine my life?
- Tell me about Lady Gaga's world tour
- Tell me why Luka got traded and how it went down (Luka Dončić–Anthony Davis NBA trade)
- Explain the labubu craze to me
- Catch me up on Alcaraz and Sinner (top men's tennis players)
- Recap the Life of a Showgirl for me (Taylor Swift's latest album)
- Bring me up to speed on F1 (Formula One racing)
- Is it OK I'm obsessed with Kpop Demon Hunters as a grown adult? I mean what are they putting in this movie that makes it so impossible to stop watching? Like is it going to take over the entire world?
- How can we reimagine the future? (AI, of course)
- How can I support my community to help them rebuild and recover? (LA fires, Texas floods)
- Help me see things in a new light (Related to the Charlie Kirk assassination? I am not sure how it connects to the video imagery, and performing that search is unenlightening .)
Compared to 2015, it's much more heavily focused on pop culture and sports. There's no hint of celebrating diversity or social change.
Google is a Business First
In this year's "Year in Search" video it is immediately noticeable that the search questions are conversation. And that is the video's entire purpose.
As Google notes in the associated blog post:
With new AI capabilities in Google Search, people asked questions in more conversational ways, like they would while talking to a friend. This year, we saw people asking “What’s the deal with…” queries more than ever.
The "Year on Search" videos are meant to illustrate Google Search in a way that's unobjectionable and maybe entices people to share. Best I can tell, there are no company principals other than doing what it thinks is best for business.
The World Has Changed
It's not surprising that Google's Search recap reflects the political and cultural winds in the US.
2015 was about stories of hope in the face of tragedy, diversity and inclusion, and finding peace. At the time it felt like a cultural shift for the better.
2025 was mostly about pop culture, sports and AI. If you follow the news, you know there have been terrible events this year, but there clearly isn't any way to give them a positive spin. You can explore this year's trending searches and news to see what was left out.
And by framing the 2025 video with the story of a man giving up everything to sail solo around the world, it feels like it's showing us we're on our own.
Related Stories
References
Google Blog, 16 December 2015, Search on: 2015 in Google Search (original version)
Google Blog, 4 December 2025, Year in Search 2025: What and how we searched this year
Google Trends: Year in Search 2025
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