Yahoo 2014 Search Trends: Ebola Ranks No. 1 For Top 10 Searches & Most Searched News Stories

Following Ask.com last week and Bing on Monday, it’s now Yahoo’s turn to share its most popular searches for the year.

Mayer’s site released its top searches for a number of categories, including most popular searches overall, top obsessions, and news stories, as well as offering up a few Tumblr lists.

Ebola ranked No. 1 for both the top 10 searches of 2014, and most searched news stories of the year.

Other top ten searches on Yahoo included Minecraft, Ariana Grande, Frozen and Miley Cyrus, raising the question, “Is Yahoo’s primary audience girls age 10 to 15?”

Top 10 Searches of 2014

1. Ebola
2. Minecraft
3. Ariana Grande
4. Jennifer Lawrence
5. Kaley Cuoco
6. Kim Kardashian
7. “Frozen”
8. Miley Cyrus
9. iPhone 6
10. Jennifer Aniston

Yahoo’s top news story searches reflect a somewhat older, or at least more mature user baser, with Ebola again taking the No. 1 spot, followed by the death of Robin Williams, the 2014 elections, leaked photos and the Malaysia Airlines tragedy.

Most Popular News Story Searches

1. Ebola epidemic
2. Death of Robin Williams
3. Elections 2014
4. Leaked photos 2014
5. Malaysia Airlines tragedies
6. Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Mo.
7. Jodi Arias sentencing
8. ISIS
9. Ray Rice domestic violence
10. Obamacare

Another end of year wrap up from Yahoo included its top ten obsessions, defined as the site’s top search terms that also gained the most popularity in 2014.

Top 10 Obsession

1. ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
2. Flappy Bird
3. Frozen
4. “50 Shades of Grey”
5. “American Ninja Warrior”
6. The Duggars
7. “All About That Bass”
8. Katniss Everdeen
9. Cleanses
10. Polar Vortex

Yahoo also put together a “Year in Review” website for Tumblr, listing more than 100 categories of top blogs and posts in 2014.

Here’s a quick list of Yahoo’s most viral blogs on Tumblr, but you can go to the site’s “Year in Review” page to find a number to lists, including most popular actors, videos and reblogged music acts.

Tumblr’s Top 10 Most Viral Blogs

1. Taylor Swift: taylorswift.tumblr.com
2. Ghost Photographs: ghostphotographs.tumblr.com
3. Will It Beard: willitbeard.tumblr.com
4. Literary Starbucks: literarystarbucks.tumblr.com
5. Crying New York: cryingnewyork.tumblr.com
6. Jerry Seinfeld Skeleton: jerryseinfeldsskeleton.tumblr.com
7. Museum of Selfies: museumofselfies.tumblr.com
8. Sochi on Tinder: sochiontinder.tumblr.com
9. If They Gunned Me Down: iftheygunnedmedown.tumblr.com
10. B4-16: b4-16.tumblr.com