Fascination over Area 51, that mysterious spot in the Nevada desert that some say holds the keys to otherworldly others among us, drove Google’s “what is?” queries in 2019. That’s not surprising, given that a guy posted a hoax event on social media inviting everyone from the mildly curious to true believers to storm the gates of a military installation about 85 miles outside Las Vegas and demand the truth about the secrets supposedly held there.
The event was a nonstarter. About 100 people showed up. One of them left in handcuffs, but it wasn’t from civil disobedience. That guy was arrested for indecent exposure charges on a warrant from Canada.
But interest made “What is Area 51?” the top “what is?” question of 2019.
Related: Storm Area 51 Group To Demand Truth About Aliens
Reading Google’s annual Year In Search report is like mining for nuggets of pop culture gold.
People also wanted to know everything they could about “OK Boomer,” a retort aimed at the baby-boom generation — the 74 million people worldwide born between 1946 and 1964 that the TikTok crowd, at least, finds old-fashioned and out of touch.
“What is a boomer?” people asked in the fifth-most-popular search query. Interest in the phrase spiked in part after a millennial legislator from New Zealand’s Green Party used it to silence a heckler. But Mashable reports that its writers have been told “OK Boomer” is a Generation Z term for joint that spread quickly on the social network TikTok.
“OK,” some boomers may have asked Google, “what is a VSCO girl?” It’s code in Generation Z that groups teenage girls together based on laid-back fashion trends. “What is camp fashion?” was another frequently asked question. The answer to that is more complex and has been open to various interpretations since the late 19th century. It’s more than wearing flannel while spinning stories around a bonfire; the gala “Camp: Notes on Fashion,” held this year at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, helped demystify it some.
“What is Momo?” was also a popular search. Although the Momo challenge was a hoax, everyone from Kim Kardashian to the mom next door was freaking out about it. They worried that a creepy and, frankly, terrifying meme of Momo — a Japanese special effects company’s sculpture or a woman with a distorted face and bulging eyes — would cause children to harm themselves or others.
Related: Momo Challenge A Hoax, Parents Still Freak Out
Some of those wondering about storming Area 51 may also have asked Google “What is a Mandalorians?” They’re make-believe people inhabiting the make-believe planet Mandalore in the “Star Wars” franchise.
Or are they?
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Google users also wanted to know about current events. Until the impeachment hearing, “quid pro quo” — a contender for Merriam-Webster’s 2019 Word of the Year — was spoken mainly in the vernacular of lawyers. It was the No. 6 most-searched-for “what is” question on Google in 2019.