The Israel-Gaza war, the Titan submersible and three hurricanes were the top trending news searches.

The Israel-Gaza war was the top trending news search in the United States, according to Google, with the surge coming after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in which about 1,200 people were killed. Since the attack, at least 20,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Users also asked Google where Hamas is based, for information about the more than 200 hostages taken into the Gaza Strip and the total death toll.

The Titan submersible vanished in June on an expedition to see the Titanic and briefly captured a large swath of the country’s attention. The lost sub, with as much room inside as a minivan, was the focus of both the U.S. and Canadian coast guards, which deployed aircraft, boats and sonar equipment to locate the Titan.

Days after the submersible vanished, the U.S. Coast Guard said the vessel had imploded, killing the five people on board. Users searched for who the people were on board, reports that a video game controller was used to steer the vessel and OceanGate, the company that owned the Titan.

Storms Hilary, Idalia and Lee were the other top trending searches. Hilary, which experts warned could make landfall as a hurricane in June, instead caused more inconvenience than damage as a tropical storm, canceling flights, closing schools and unleashing mudslides in California. Hurricane Idalia, which made landfall in August in Florida, resulted in multiple deaths and flooding, especially on the island of Cedar Key.

Lee eventually made landfall in September in eastern New England and Canada. AI models helped pinpoint when the storm would hit, an astonishing achievement for technology that was only recently considered to be in its infancy.

Globally, people also searched for information about the deadly earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria and killed tens of thousands.

Two NFL players, plus actor Jeremy Renner and Tucker Carlson, were the most searched people.

At the beginning of 2023, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest and collapsed on the field in a game against the Cincinnati Bengals. A swift response by first responders may have saved his life, and he returned to football this fall. Users searched for updates on Hamlin, for information about cardiac arrest and for Hamlin’s GoFundMe toy drive, which raised millions after the medical event.

Travis Kelce, a tight end on the Kansas City Chiefs, was also a top trending search this year after his budding romance with Taylor Swift was made public.

Actor Jeremy Renner, who plays Hawkeye in Marvel’s Avengers movies, was also among the top searched people on Google after he was run over by his snowplow in Nevada in January, an incident that left him in critical condition.

Renner was crushed by the seven-ton snowplow while trying to help his nephew free the actor’s car, breaking eight ribs, his right knee, ankle, clavicle and shoulder, and his left tibia and ankle. Months later, he posted a video of himself walking in an antigravity treadmill. Users tended to search for “snowplow” when seeking information.

Tucker Carlson, an on-air personality who Fox News dropped in April, was also a trending search as he debuted a show on X to his 11 million followers and recently launched a streaming service.

Matthew Perry, Tina Turner and Sinéad O’Connor were among the top searched deaths of the year.

Matthew Perry, the “Friends” star who died of the acute effects of ketamine in October, was one of the top searches of those who passed in 2023. People sought information on a toxicology report and his autopsy, which concluded a high dose of ketamine led to his death.

Users also searched for Tina Turner, who died in May at 83 in her home in Switzerland after a career in which she remade herself as a solo artist, winning eight Grammy Awards and selling more than 100 million records. People searched for her net worth and information about her children.

Sinéad O’Connor, the Irish singer who died at 56 in July, was one of the most searched deaths across the world. O’Connor is widely remembered for appearing on “Saturday Night Live” in 1992 and singing Bob Marley’s “War” before tearing a photograph of the pope into eight pieces in a protest of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

On the big screen, ‘Barbie,’ ‘Oppenheimer’ and ‘Sound of Freedom’ were trending searches.

“Barbenheimer” was a cultural phenomenon that shattered box office records and expectations, as “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” grossed hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide and accrued large interest on Google. People searched for showtimes and movie soundtracks, and learned about the doll’s origin story.

While “Sound of Freedom” did not have the same fanfare leading up to it as the twin openings of Barbenheimer, the surprise hit was also a top searched movie of the year. The film, which was partially crowdfunded, grossed over $11 million on opening weekend, going toe-to-toe with the latest “Indiana Jones” movie despite its low budget.

The Kevin James meme, the Roman Empire and Jason Aldean were other top searches.

Then there were the miscellaneous trends people searched for, sometimes controversial, sometimes quirky.

Look no further than a meme of Kevin James, with his hands in his pockets as he shrugs and smirks, that went viral. The photo, from promotional pictures of “The King of Queens,” picked up interest in September as people asked why James had become a meme.

Jason Aldean was also a top trending search of the year after the release of the music video to his song “Try That in a Small Town” sparked backlash. Critics said the video, which was edited to remove Black Lives Matter imagery, contained coded threats against Black people. It was also filmed at the site of a lynching.

The wildly popular song also drew conservative defenders and a No. 2 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Aldean defended the song as a celebration of small-town virtues that has nothing to do with race.

Users also searched for why and how often people think about the Roman Empire after a TikTok trend prompted women to ask the men in their lives how often they think about ancient Rome. It turned out to be quite frequently.