Belgium's top Google searches in 2018 revealed

Football, politics and celebrity deaths were among the most searched-for topics in Belgium this year, according to the latest end-of-year stats from Google.

"World Cup 2018" - and variations thereof - had the most Google searches, while in domestic football, RSC Anderlecht was the most popular Belgian club, followed by Club Brugge and Standard Liège.

After the World Cup, the second most searched-for event this year was "Elections 2018". Among the top 10 search terms beginning with "How to...", three were about how to vote in October's municipal elections.

The most searched-for government minister wasn't prime minister Charles Michel (he came third), but Theo Francken, who oversaw the country's migration policy, until last weekend when the N-VA party quit the federal government. Health minister Maggie De Block was second. In Brussels, mobility minister Pascal Smet attracted the most searches of all the region's politicians.

And in showbiz, the most popular celebrity searches were for Swedish DJ and producer Avicii, who died in April aged just 28, and Belgian singer Maurane, who died in May at the age of 57.

The search engine's end-of-year report also reveals that, for many Facebook users in Belgium, their preferred way of logging in to the social network is to type "Facebook login" into Google. It was the third most searched-for term overall.