Lost stars and World Cup hot topics on Google in 2018

An annual summary of "top trending searches" released Tuesday by the world's most popular online search engine was meant to reflect fresh subjects or names in which interest rocketed this year.

The top term for general search as well as in a news category was "World Cup" football.

But, seven of the 10 most keenly pursued new searches for the year globally centered on rising stars or established icons who passed, among them Anthony Bourdain, Stephen Hawking and Kate Spade.

The list of top trending searches globally included U.S. actress Meghan Markle, who married British Prince Harry, and a "Black Panther" film that debuted this year.

The Royal Wedding was ranked the fourth hottest trending topic in news, after the World Cup, Hurricane Florence, and the results of a Mega Millions lottery.

Sizzling general search topics in the U.S. to a large degree reflected global trends at Google this year, but the Top 10 list here included "election results" from keenly watched midterm elections.