The Malaysia Airlines disasters, Luis Suarez and the Scottish independence referendum were among the most searched news stories in the UK this year.
The allegations against Sir Cliff Richard, celebrity photo hacking and the Oscar Pistorius trial were also among the most commonly searched stories.
Google has released its Year in Search report, which includes the top trending terms of the year, as well as the most searched terms for different countries and – for the first time – different cities.
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Actor Robin Williams, who died in August, topped the global list of trending searches – the terms that had the highest spike of traffic over a certain period of time in 2014 – followed by the World Cup and Ebola.
Last year, the top trending searches in the world were Nelson Mandela, Paul Walker and iPhone 5s.
Jennifer Lawrence beat Kim Kardashian and French President François Hollande's lover Julie Gayet to become 2014's top trending person in the world.
In the UK, mystery artist Banksy topped the list of most common "Who is...?" questions asked on Google, while Ebola topped the "What is...?" chart.
In London, Glasgow, Brighton and Leeds, the number one "How to...?" search was "How to kiss". Meanwhile, Bristolians were keen to find out "How to squat" and Oxford residents wanted to know "How to paraphrase".
The top ten most searched news stories in the UK were:
1. Malasian Airways [sic] disasters
2. Luis Suarez bite
3. Scottish independence referendum
4. Sir Cliff Richard allegations
5. Celebrity photo hacking
6. Oscar Pistorius trail [sic]
7. Michael Schumacher accident
8. Frank Maloney sex change
9. Alan Henning beheading
10. Ukraine military unrest
Overall, the top ten trending searches in the world were:
1. Robin Williams
2. World Cup
3. Ebola
4. Malaysia Airlines
5. ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
6. Flappy Bird
7. Conchita Wurst
8. ISIS
9. Frozen
10. Sochi Olympics
Globally, the top ten trending people were:
1. Jennifer Lawrence
2. Kim Kardashian
3. Julie Gayet
4. Tracy Morgan
5. Renee Zellweger
6. Jared Leto
7. Lorde
8. Matthew McConaughey
9. Amal Alamuddin
10.Donald Sterling