Death, devices and celebrity drove the quest for more information on Google's search engine this year.

Google on Tuesday December 17th 2013 released its list of the top-trending searches of 2013, which showed that two year-end deaths resonated most in a year packed with news events, product releases and well-traveled memes.

Three of the world's four fastest-rising search requests on Google were triggered by the deaths of famous men.

Former South African President Nelson Mandela, who died earlier this month, occupied the top spot, followed by Fast & Furious movie star Paul Walker, who died in a Nov. 30 car crash.

The iPhone 5S, the latest upgrade in Apple's most popular product line, finished third in Google's rankings.

Glee TV series castmember Cory Monteith, who died of a drug overdose in July, ranked fourth in an annual retrospective released Tuesday.

Searches for the Harlem Shake – a song that inspired a precession of amusing dance videos – which Google revealed last week generated 1.7 million videos, came in fifth.

The Boston Marathon bombings in April that killed three people ranked sixth.

"Royal baby" Prince George, the heir to England's throne, at No. 7.

A rival smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S4, took the eighth spot. PlayStation 4, Sony Corp.'s newest video game console, held the ninth position and North Korea, whose saber-rattling has become a source of international tension, at No. 10.

 

See the list arranged from top to bottom:
1. Nelson Mandela
2. Paul Walker
3. iPhone 5s
4. Cory Monteith
5. Harlem Shake
6. Boston Marathon
7. Royal Baby
8. Samsung Galaxy S4
9. PlayStation 4
10. North Korea

Google's review follows annual roundups compiled during the previous two weeks by its main search rivals — Microsoft Corp.'s Bing, Yahoo Inc. and Ask.com. Although its list usually comes last each year, Google's breakdown typically provides the greatest insight into the world's collective mindset because the company's technology processes about two out of every three search requests made on the Internet.

Bing ranks a distant second with 18 percent of the U.S. search market, and even less in most other countries. Yahoo, which relies on Bing's technology, handles the third most search requests.

Because the same inquiries tend to crop up from one year to the next, Google tries to keep its list fresh by focusing on the queries that post the biggest annual gains — a measurement that the Mountain View, Calif., company calls "trending."

Google also is slicing its vast database of search requests into a hodgepodge of other categories spanning 72 countries, up from 55 last year. In the U.S. alone, Google is compiling more than 90 different lists examining the hottest inquiries about everything from finances to pop culture.

A handful of the rankings are based on the total number of requests entered into Google's search engine, instead of breaking them down by the variance from last year.