Bing’s 2013 search highlights reveal that we want Beyoncé, the Royal baby, and the Harlem Shake

Microsoft has revealed the top search results for 2013 on its Bing search engine, and based on billions of searches, the most searched person of the year was pop star Beyoncé.

I’m not sure what this tells us, except that we’re still obsessed with celebrities.

Beyoncé beat out No. 2 Kim Kardashian, followed by Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Madonna, Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Amanda Bynes, Miley Cyrus, and President Barack Obama. Beyoncé ruled in eight of 12 countries that participated in the search results. But Miley Cyrus twerked her way to the top in Australia and Canada.

The top news story was the birth of England’s Royal baby, Prince George. Facebook topped the list for the most searched social network. The Xbox One came in as the most searched consumer electronics product in the U.S. and five other countries, keeping the iPhone at bay in second place.

The most-searched U.S. TV show was The Big Bang Theory, which beat out No. 2′s America Idol. The top searched American sports team was the Dallas Cowboys, which has an estimated value of $2.1 billion.

And the Harlem Shake was the most viral video/meme in the U.S. in 2013. On YouTube, the video has 67 million views.

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.