Google has released its annual “Year in Search,” which offers a chance to reflect on what we are were typing into the box on what remains the world’s most popular website. Here, we learn that the top search related to the ambiguous category of “performance” was “Raygun full performance,” referring to the comically botched Australian break dancing routine from the Olympics, followed by “Ryan Gosling Oscars.” We learn that the top interior design trend was “Biophilic.” Interesting! And as usual, we also get a list of the most-searched museums on Google Maps.

Which museums were people were most looking for this year? Here’s the list:

1. British Museum, London
2. Museum of Art of São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand
3. Science and Industry Museum, Chicago
4. Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City
5. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid
6. Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, Valencia, Spain
7. Louvre Museum, Paris
8. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
9. Mercedes-Benz Museum, Stuttgart, Germany
10. Städel Museum, Frankfurt, Germany

Some comments.

In the number-two position, the Museum of Art of São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP) is Brazil’s most important art institution. What gave it such a good year? Well, it had a big Francis Bacon show, as well as shows about the activist collective Gran Fury and about Brazil’s own Mário de Andrade, the founder of the 1920s art movement known as Anthropophagia.

Brazil, Sao Paulo Modern Art Gallery. (Photo by Romano Cagnoni/Getty Images)

But it was also in the news because MASP’s director, Adriano Pedrosa, was head of this year’s Venice Biennale, where he recreated MASP’s most famous feature, the innovative “glass easel” stands used to display its paintings, designed by legendary architect Lina Bo Bardi, as an attraction. Above all, the museum drew attention because it completed a major expansion in November, to open fully next year.

At number three, Chicago’s Science and Industry Museum is the only U.S. entry. It was in the news for changing its name to the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, after Florida (and former Windy City) hedge-funder Ken Griffin, who gave it $125 million. (Amusing that Google isn’t respecting the change.)

The sixth-place finish of the Santiago Calatrava-designed Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias in Valencia was probably helped by the fact that a Japanese-Korean pop group, MiSaMo, filmed part of the music video for its song “Identity” there.

As for the Mercedes-Benz Museum, which is dedicated to the car company, in Stuttgart, it celebrated its 13th million visitor in September. His name was Frédéric, and he was also in town to see the Porsche Museum.

All of this is mainly speculation. The Google rankings are always somewhat vexing, providing little in the way of actual numbers or info on where searches come from or how searches for museums compare to one another. But for reference, here’s the list of Google Map searches for museums from 2023:

1. Louvre Museum, Paris
2. The British Museum, London
3. Musée d’Orsay, Paris
4. Natural History Museum, London
5. teamLab Planets, Tokyo
6. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
7. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid
8. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
9. American Museum of Natural History, New York
10. Anne Frank House, Amsterdam