Google's top 2014 search trends revealed

Lifestyle: Cronuts, the meaning of life, funny cats and more

- Health foods like chia seeds and goji berries were popular across the year, though pizza was still searched for more than other huge search terms such as the World Cup.

- Cronuts the cross between a doughnut and croissant came to our collective attention with the term what is a cronut.'

- In an interesting twist, the Japanese searched for French cuisine more than France, and those of us in the UK searched for Indian food more than India. In general, restaurant' was Googled more than recipes', suggesting we're still relatively kitchen-shy.

- Terms such as how many calories should I eat in a day' and how to lose weight' prevailed in 2014.

- We searched for what is love' 5x more than what is science', proving that we're still perplexed by our most basic emotions, and we were also intrigued by how to kiss' in 2014.

- Philosophical queries like what is life' and who am I' were balanced out with social media concerns such as who unfollowed me'. Turns out we're a worried bunch when it comes to our place in the world.

- Continuing the trend of mass naval-gazing, Selfies were a huge phenomenon in 2014, with what is a selfie' rising 3x and better selfie' up 6x. Cancer Research UK got in on the act, launching the "no makeup selfie" campaign and boosted search volumes even more.

- NEWS FLASH we quite like cats, and thus we spent some of 2014 searching for terms related to our feline friends. Searches for funny cats' far outnumbered funny dogs' and the Savannah cat recently recognised as a registered breed was the most searched around the world.

We didn't leave dogs out completely though, with do dogs dream' among the year's top searches.

Caroline Preece

Caroline has been writing about technology for more than a decade, switching between consumer smart home news and reviews and in-depth B2B industry coverage. In addition to her work for IT Pro and Cloud Pro, she has contributed to a number of titles including Expert Reviews, TechRadar, The Week and many more. She is currently the smart home editor across Future Publishing's homes titles.

You can get in touch with Caroline via email at caroline.preece@futurenet.com.