Wikipedia has published its ‘Honors List’ for 2012 revealing exactly what us Brits and the rest of the world wanted to read about throughout the year. It highlights some stark differences in searches from differing parts of the world and makes for some quite interesting reading be it on your phone, tablet or computer.

Britain’s Top 10

1. Facebook topped the poll with a huge view count of 32,647,942 views, proving that even though it would seem the whole country and it’s dog have a profile on the social network giant, people are still keen to find out more.

2. Wiki, not to be confused with the publishers of the poll, takes second place with 29,613,759 views. A Wiki is a website which allows its users to add, modify or delete content via a web browser and Wikipedia itself grew from the use of this interface.

3. Deaths in 2012 was the third most read article with 25,418,587 views. The Great British public again proving themselves to be a somewhat sombre bunch, 2012 has nevertheless been a bumper year for high profile deaths with Whitney Houston, Andy Williams, Neil Armstrong and Ravi Shankar all departing the earth this year.

4. Every year seems to have a Boyband and 2012 is no exception, with One Direction taking the world by storm and also the number four spot with 22,351,637 views. After finishing third on the X Factor in 2010 the group have since sold over 15 million records worldwide and show no signs of slowing down.

5. The big screen comes in at number five with The Avengers being the most read about film with 22,268,644 views. Starring Robert Downey Jr and Scarlet Johansson, anticipation for the movie was huge as was its take at the box office, grossing $1.51 billion worldwide, making it the third highest grossing film of all time.

6. Number six, with 21,779,423 views, is the erotic novel Fifty Shades Of Grey by British Author E.L. James. Although critical reception of the book was, at best, mixed, it captured the imagination of the nation, seemingly unearthing an amount of repressed sexual desire through its saucy prose.

7. 2012 has long been named as the year when a number of dark prophecies and fore tellings would come to fruition and so no surprise that the so called ’2012 phenomenon’ features at seven with 20,619,920 views. Focusing on a Mayan prediction that the world would end on December 21st, it is my pleasure to announce that, as I write this on December 29th, they appear to have been wrong!

8. Film again at number eight with The Dark Knight Rises garnering 18,882,885 views. The latest Batman instalment featured an all star cast, Christian Bale reprising his role as the lead hero and helping to ensure it became the second highest grossing film of 2012.

9. The ubiquitous search engine Google was the ninth most read article this year with 18,508,719 views. With Google branching out into Social Media, Hardware and Operating Systems along side its search facility, this was definitely Googles year and would seem the public wanted to find out more.

10. Tenth place was taken by The Hunger Games, a film showcasing a post apocalyptic North America. With 18,431,626 views, this film captured the nations imagination, perhaps with the help of the ‘2012 Phenomenon’! that featured at number seven.

The Rest Of The World.

So no huge shocks there, a pretty fair representation of the kind of things people wanted to know more about in 2012. Some of the polls from around the world however, can seem a little more bizarre....

Facebook again topped the poll in a number of other countries including Spain and Indonesia, coming second in Vietnam, third in France and 10th in Germany. American show Greys Anatomy came first in Italy while the ‘Sackgasse’ or cul-de-sac was Germany’s top read!

The Dutch were most interested in a deadly hiking trail in China known as ‘Hua Shan’ while the Japanese displayed their naughty side with an article dedicated to adult video actresses.

Wikipedia’s poll has maybe inadvertently provided us with a global insight into the minds of each countries people and the full list make for very interesting (and amusing) reading!

Author Bio:
Reese is a tech and gadget lover, a die-hard fan of iOS and console games. She started her writing venture last month and writes about everything from quick tech tips, to mobile-specific news to tech-related DIY.

Find more about her and her work at Reese+ and tweet her @r_am_jones.