Google’s top searches of 2017: Hurricane Irma, Matt Lauer, how to make slime and more

Google on Wednesday revealed the top search trends of 2017, from Hurricane Irma to April the Giraffe to several "how-to" topics, including how to make slime and solar eclipse glasses (and how to buy Bitcoin).

In October, the search engine giant found evidence of Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election on YouTube, Gmail and in its own search results.

As the Verge reported, "Google essentially holds a monopoly on truth because it's by far the dominant search engine on the web. It's more important than ever for Google to manage the integrity of its search result rankings."

Google's Year in Search 2017 lists are based on search terms that "had a high spike in traffic in 2017 as compared to 2016," the company said.

Globally, the top 10 searches were:

But Google noted high search interest for global sporting events (Wimbledon, Super Bowl and the Mayweather vs McGregor fight) and the deaths of Tom Petty, Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell.

People were particularly interested in memes in 2017, especially the "Cash Me Outside," the United Airlines and Elf on the Shelf memes.

When it came to music, the most-searched songs were “Despacito,” “Shape of You” and “Perfect.”

Atlanta-filmed Netflix hit series “Stranger Things” made the list, too.

When it came to questions, Google noted that this year, more than ever, folks asked “how.”

That includes “how” questions like:

And many more.

And people really wanted to know “how to:”

And more.