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Google’s Year in Search 2025 puts Gemini among the year’s global breakout searches, and contemporaneous reporting identifies it as the top global trending query. DeepSeek also appeared in the global top ten. These are rankings of search-interest growth—not the terms people searched most overall—and AI was one part of a year shaped by many subjects.

What Google’s Year in Search rankings measure

Google Trends defines its Year in Search lists as the queries whose search interest increased the most from January 1 through November 25, 2025, compared with the same dates in 2024. Google says the lists are not based on the “most searched” terms. A trending query is therefore a breakout in interest against the prior-year comparison, not necessarily a query with the highest total search volume. Google Trends’ methodology explains the distinction.

The lists measure search behavior, not public opinion, and do not establish what caused an increase. They also do not show that a topic dominated every kind of search throughout the year.

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Where Gemini and other AI searches fit

Google’s global Year in Search page includes Google Gemini. TechCrunch’s contemporaneous report describes Gemini as the leading global trending search term and DeepSeek as another entry in the global top ten. That placement is about growth in search interest, not proof that Gemini had the greatest absolute search volume. The official page is interactive and does not expose every ranked row in its accessible text, so the precise ranking description relies on the contemporaneous report.

The prominence of Gemini and DeepSeek shows that interest in AI assistants was a notable strand of the global trends. It does not establish that AI accounted for most of the year’s overall search interest. Google’s lists also reflect politics, sport, entertainment and other events; they are not a single-topic account of the year.

Google reports more conversational query patterns

In Google’s December 4, 2025 release, Data Editor Simon Rogers said searches beginning “Tell me about…” rose 70% year over year. Google also reported that queries starting with “How do I…” reached an all-time high and increased 25% from the previous year. These are Google-reported changes in query patterns; they do not show that AI caused the increases or quantify every user or all Google searches. Read Google’s Year in Search 2025 release.

Google highlighted informal wording such as “What’s the deal with…”, “Tell me about…”, and “How do I…”. Rogers wrote, “This year, we saw people asking ‘What’s the deal with…’ queries more than ever.” The release gives “What’s the deal with 6-7?” and “How do I know if my Labubu is real?” as examples. They illustrate the phrasing Google discussed; they should not be treated as a representative sample of all searches.

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Global trends are not country rankings

The global list and an individual country’s list answer different questions. Google provides country navigation on the Year in Search site, and a query’s global placement should not be presented as its ranking in a particular country. To make a local claim, consult that country’s list and specify whether the claim concerns a breakout in interest or total search volume.

How to read the 2025 result

  • Gemini: included in Google’s global trends; TechCrunch identified it as the leading global trending search.
  • DeepSeek: reported in the global top ten, another notable AI-assistant trend.
  • Conversational phrasing: Google reported year-over-year increases for “Tell me about…” and “How do I…” query patterns, without attributing them to AI.
  • Scope: the rankings describe growth in search interest during the stated comparison period, not raw search totals or a complete measure of what mattered to the public.

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