The Virtual World

What Houstonians secretly search for online: Top Google searches are very revealing

Google reveals Houston's top search terms for 2014.

Thanks to Google's annual "Year in Search," Houstonians can find out exactly what their neighbors are searching for most online.

The top searches for 2014 overall included several celebrities who died this year, including Robin Williams at No. 1, Joan Rivers at No. 5 and Philip Seymour Hoffman at No. 7 (they were also the top three people searches of the 2014).

Apparently Houstonians really want to know more about skin care as the No. 4 "how to" search was "how to exfoliate," coming in right behind "how to knit," "how to coupon" and "how to fish," respectively.

As in many cities, the No. 1 "What is" search in Houston was "What is ALS?" — most likely due to the intense popularity of the ALS Association's Ice Bucket Challenge this past summer.

Below are the complete listings of Houstonians' top Google searches from 2014:

Top Trending Searches

1. Robin Williams
2. World Cup
3. Ebola
4. iPhone 6
5. Joan Rivers
6. Black Friday 2014
7. Philip Seymour Hoffman
8. Jennifer Lawrence
9. Malaysia Airlines
10. NFL Draft

Top Trending News/Events

1. World Cup
2. Ebola
3. Black Friday 2014
4. Malaysia Airlines
5. NFL Draft
6. ALS
7. ISIS
8. Olympics
9. Ferguson
10. Oscars 2014

Top Trending People

1. Robin Williams
2. Joan Rivers
3. Philip Seymour Hoffman
4. Jennifer Lawrence
5. Tracy Morgan
6. Ray Rice
7. Iggy Azalea
8. Adrian Peterson
9. Donald Sterling
10. Johnny Manziel

Top Trending "What Is" Searches

1. What is ALS
2. What is Ebola
3. What is ISIS
4. What is Bitcoin
5. What is wcw
6. What is anxiety
7. What is MS
8. What is Uber
9. What is ohms
10. What is Alibaba

Top Trending "How To" Searches

1. How to knit
2. How to coupon
3. How to fish
4. How to exfoliate
5. How to drive
6. How to cook
7. How to freestyle
8. How to pray
9. How to whistle
10. How to dance

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a major award

Houston powers Texas to No. 1 state for economic development

Eli Lilly pharmaceutical plant rendering Generation Park

Courtesy of Eli Lilly

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Texas is on a 14-year winning streak as the top state for attracting job-creating business location and expansion projects.

Once again, Texas has claimed Site Selection magazine’s Governor’s Cup. This year’s honor recognizes the state with the highest number of economic development projects in 2025. Texas landed more than 1,400 projects last year.

Ron Starner, executive vice president of Site Selection, calls Texas “a dynasty in economic development.”

Among metro areas, Houston lands at No. 2 for the most economic development projects secured last year (590), behind No. 1 Chicago and ahead of No. 3 Dallas-Fort Worth.

In praising Houston as a project magnet, Gov. Greg Abbott cites the November announcement by pharmaceutical giant Lilly that it’s building a $6.5 billion manufacturing plant at Houston’s Generation Park.

“Growth in the Greater Houston region is a great benefit to our state’s economy, a major location for foreign direct investment and key industry sectors like energy, aerospace, advanced manufacturing, and life sciences,” Abbott tells Site Selection. “Houston is also home to one of the largest concentrations of U.S. headquarters for companies from around the world.”

In 2025, Fortune ranked Houston as the U.S. city with the third-highest number of Fortune 500 headquarters (26).

Texas retained the Governor’s Cup by gaining over 1,400 business location and expansion projects last year, representing more than $75 billion in capital investments and producing more than 42,000 new jobs.

Site Selection says Texas’ project count for 2025 handily beat second-place Illinois (680 projects) and third-place Ohio (467 projects). Texas’ number for 2025 represented 18% of all qualifying U.S. projects tracked by Site Selection.

“You can see that we are on a trajectory to ensure our economic diversification is going to inoculate us in good times, as well as bad times, to ensure our economy is still going to grow, still create new jobs, prosperity, and opportunities for Texans going forward,” Abbott says.

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This story was originally published on our sister site, InnovationMap.

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a major award

Houston powers Texas to No. 1 state for economic development