Google's Guide To The Universe

The search engine keeps track of the Web queries that show the largest spike each month. A disease, a hot book and an even hotter videotape occupied our minds this year.

JANUARY Joe Millionaire (Fox TV hit debuts)

FEBRUARY NASA (the space shuttle Columbia blows up on Feb. 1)

MARCH Al-Jazeera (Gulf War II starts)

APRIL SARS (worldwide scare over the epidemic)

MAY Matrix (Reloaded opens on May 15)

JUNE Harry Potter (a new volume — at last — hits stores at midnight, June 21)

JULY Tour de France (Lance again)

AUGUST MSBlast (computer virus strikes on Aug. 11)

SEPTEMBER Hurricane Isabel (rocks East Coast on Sept. 18)

OCTOBER Halloween (scary stuff)

NOVEMBER Paris Hilton (in the raw)

DECEMBER Christmas (an old reliable is the year's No. 1 hit)

Quotes of the Day »

Get & Share
HANS MONDROW, East Germany's last communist prime minister, on the East German soldiers who ignored orders to shoot to kill those crossing into West Germany and made the decision to open the border on Nov. 9, 1989
For use in rail of Articles page or Section Fronts pages. Duplicate and change name as necesssary to distinguish.

Time.com on Digg

POWERED BY digg

Quotes of the Day »

Get & Share
HANS MONDROW, East Germany's last communist prime minister, on the East German soldiers who ignored orders to shoot to kill those crossing into West Germany and made the decision to open the border on Nov. 9, 1989

Stay Connected with TIME.com