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World Cup most searched sports term for Google in 2014

The 2014 World Cup was among the top search terms for Google in 2014 both globally and in the United States.

Soccer's biggest event was second in Google's list of top global and U.S. trending searches, with over 2.2 billion searches, in both cases behind comedian and actor Robin Williams in the days following his death.

The World Cup final, with Germany beating Argentina, set a U.S. TV viewing record while the month-long event became the most searched for sporting event in history. James Rodriguez was the top trending player, while the total number of searches related to the event reached over 2.2 billion.

Luis Suarez's bite on Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini during the World Cup was the No. 4 news story of the year on Google, behind Ebola, the ALS-inspired ice bucket challenge and the Malaysia Airlines tragedy.

Google said that when Germany led 5-0 at halftime against Brazil in the semifinal, searches in Germany for "highest world cup victory" surged.

#INSERT type:image caption:Luis Suarez's bite on Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini during the World Cup was the No. 4 news story of the year on Google. END#

In the United States, the World Cup was searched 10 times more than the NBA Finals while the tournament's top trending players were Rodriguez, Luis Suarez, Angel Di Maria, Tim Howard and Toni Kroos.

Rodriguez won the Golden Boot at the World Cup, scoring six goals in five games as Colombia reached the quarterfinals before losing 2-1 to Brazil.

U.S. goalkeeper Howard's 16 saves in the Americans' 2-1 extra-time loss to Belgium on Tuesday were the most in a World Cup game in the past 50 years, but the loss saw the team fail to make the quarterfinals.

Williams, Ebola, the World Cup and the ALS ice bucket challenge also ranked among the most-discussed subjects this year on Facebook, which released its list last week. Google released its list on Tuesday.

Google's review follows annual roundups compiled during the previous two weeks by its main search rivals. Although Google's list usually comes last each year, its rankings typically provide more telling insights into what people were thinking because the company's technology processes about two out of every three search requests made on the Internet.

Google is the most-used search engine in the United States, with about 67 percent market share, according to comScore.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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