On December 15 Google published its annual Zeitgeist report detailing the fastest-rising searches of 2011 and recapping the year in terms of worldwide searches.

This year pop singer Rebecca Black, who shot to fame when her vanity single "Friday" was leaked on YouTube, came top of Google's fastest-rising searches worldwide. Other popular terms included Google's social network Google + in second position and former Jackass star Ryan Dunn, who died earlier this year, in third position.

However, numerous other major events have helped shape our world in 2011, including the ‘Occupy' protests that gripped much of North America and Western Europe, the earthquake and tsunami that rocked Fukushima in northern Japan, the floods in Brazil, the death of Osama Bin Laden, the final lift-off of Atlantis, and more.

Google has compiled images from these key events and others into a video which is available to watch on YouTube at: http://goo.gl/432qg  

For those who wish to look back on 2010, last year's video is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0QXB5pw2qE