PURE GOLD.

If you are what you Google search -- and you are -- then 2014 was indeed a trash year. In an annual ritual of backwards-looking and teeth-gnashing, Google today released its top search terms for the year that was -- Ebola, ISIS, and "how to get rid of stretch marks" among them. I, for one, can't wait until 2015. Onward!

1. The only intimate space left online. At first glance, the recent rise of Slack, GroupMe and WhatsApp looks like a vaguely nostalgic throwback to the more innocent era of '90s chat. But given our increasing awareness of surveillance and the rise of the public-facing social web, the resurgence of the chat room is also a whole lot more than that.

2. In the aftermath of an international meme. Two years after she "restored" a 100-year-old Spanish fresco, Cecilia Gimenez is still an unwitting celebrity ... and, by all accounts, the savior of her lil Internet-famous town.

3. Why can't I delete that damn stock market app?! Apple phones come preloaded with certain applications -- some of which you can delete, and some of which you can't. Here's a question that goes to modern tech's values, though: Why are iMovie and Garageband "extras," while that stupid stock app's a must-have?

Watch the man on the left realize it's his mother on the phone. PURE GOLD.

Pocketable: Quora's quest to answer all the Internet's questions. (3192 words/13 minutes)

Postscripts: Vox or Clickhole? Podcasts or radio? Hamsters eating burritos, or hamsters wearing holiday hats? How The Racket almost upended journalism and what's going on with the Sony hack. Bitcoin bad. Trolls worse. Internet religion just plan mean. Today, in "good riddance, 2014!": the 50 most-shared Facebook posts and the year's 10 most-Googled GIFs. (Relevant question: Why didn't more people search for this?!)

Until tomorrow,
@caitlindewey

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