VOA · What's Trending Today?
Intermediate · B1–B2learner speed2:592018-09-27public domain
What's Trending Today? covers viral stories and social media moments in short, punchy reports. The episodes are brief and topical — perfect for a quick daily dictation session.
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01This is what's trending today.
02Google turned 20 years old on Thursday.
03The search engine celebrated with a special Google Doodle video on its U.S.
04homepage.
05The fun animated video noted some of the most common Google searches throughout the company's history.
06One popular search from 1998, its first year in operation, was a simple question.
07What is Google?
08Other popular searches in the last 20 years include, What will happen on Y2K, the start of the year 2000?
09Is Pluto still a planet?
10What is a selfie?
11And, more recently, show me pictures of cute animals.
12Along with the special Doodle Thursday, Google also took a look back at some of its most memorable doodles.
13They include its first animated or moving Doodle on Halloween in 2000, A quickly drawn doodle to mark the discovery of water on the moon.
14And one on Earth Day in 2015 that featured the first doodle quiz.
15Google also created a special 20th anniversary website, 20yearswithgoogle.com.
16The site tells visitors interesting search trends throughout Google's history.
17For example, David Beckham was the most searched soccer player from 2000 to 2004.
18And Jessica Alba was the most searched female actor from 2005 to 2007.
19Two doctoral students from Stanford University, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, launched the search engine in September 1998.
20Their aim was to make the world's information more useful and more organized.
21Today, users can search in over 150 languages in more than 190 countries.
22And Google is the most visited site in the world, according to Alexa Internet.
23And that's what's trending today.
24I'm Brian Lynn.
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