I analyzed Perplexity’s searches report from 2024, and found some fascinating patterns about what people wanted to know this year. The data tells an interesting story about our collective curiosity.
First, tech searches centered on three main stories: China’s Kling AI text-to-video model, Google’s Willow quantum chip, and ChatGPT’s odd behavior of refusing certain names like “David Mayer.” The quantum chip sparked intense debates about parallel universes, while Kling AI got more attention than any other AI model release this year.
Election-related searches made up nearly a third of all US queries. The most common questions focused on Project 2025, fracking, and debate results. But the election’s impact reached far beyond America – “US election results” topped search rankings in almost every country.
Finance searches exploded alongside Bitcoin’s price surge to $100,000 in December. The most-searched tickers worldwide were BTC, TSLA, NVDA, DOGE and XRP. Shopping searches peaked during Black Friday, with the MacBook Air M3 and Nintendo Switch leading sales.
But my favorite insight? The most unexpected purchase through Perplexity Shopping was armadillo repellent. Sometimes the data reveals these wonderfully random details.
Students emerged as power users, with searches increasing 15x since fall semester started. Most queries focused on company research and comparison analysis for reports. NYU, Northeastern, and UC Berkeley showed the highest student activity.
The data also highlighted regional trends: Germans searched about Dubai chocolate and “Talahon” TikTok culture, Japanese users tracked typhoons, Indians researched cloud computing after Ratan Tata’s passing, and Brazilians followed dramatic political debates involving metal chairs.
Perplexity’s growth reflects increasing comfort with AI-powered research. Their valuation jumped from $520 million to $9 billion this year, backed by investors like SoftBank, Nvidia and Jeff Bezos. The platform now serves over 500 million queries to 10 million monthly users.
What fascinates me most is how the searches mirror both major world events and quirky human interests. From quantum physics to armadillo control, we’re using AI to understand everything around us.
