Google is celebrating the biggest surprises of 2025 and the ways people are rethinking what is possible with its 15th annual Year in Search campaign.
The work continues last year’s theme by highlighting breakout searches that rose more than 5,000% in 2025 compared with 2024.
The nearly four minute film, created by Google Brand Studio, moves through a wide range of moments from sports, pop culture, politics, and religion that caught the world off guard.
These include Luka Dončić being traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, Pope Francis becoming the first American pope, Zohran Mamdani winning the New York mayoral race, and the success of Netflix’s hit KPop Demon Hunters.
The campaign also shows the ways people turned to Google for answers about trends such as Labubus and the meaning of 6-7. It includes somber moments, as well, reflecting on the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the response to severe floods in Texas and wildfires in Los Angeles.
Google released the ad on social media along with a Google Doodle inspired by the breakout searches and a set of videos that explore moments from the main film, such as India’s Women’s Cricket World Cup and Lady Gaga’s tour The Mayhem Ball.
According to Google, people asked questions in more conversational ways this year. The tech giant saw more queries starting as, “What’s the deal with…?” (Example: “What’s the deal with 6-7?”)
Searches for “Tell me about…” were up 70% year over year, and queries starting with “How do I…” increased 25% from last year. The latter group included questions like, “How do I know if my Labubu is real?”
