Global Language Monitor's 14th annual survey reveals '404' and 'Pope Francis' are web's most popular

IT WAS a big year for politics, royalty and Miley's backside. But the most popular words and people on the internet in 2013 might surprise you.

In 2013, this happened ... a lot. And the internet was pretty into it.

FAME-hungry celebrities would give anything to be the most prominent name on the web, and a few of them had a fair crack at it with their antics in 2013.

Miley, we're looking at you.

But in the end, none topple Pope Francis, who has been anointed as the most-used name on the world wide web this year.

An annual survey by US-based Global Language Monitor discovered '404' was the most-used word on the web in 2013 - it's the name of the error code that appears on an unavailable website.

Then came 'fail', 'hashtag' and '@pontifex' which is the Pope's Twitter handle.

The survey trawls the web and ranks the most commonly featured words based on how many times they appear online throughout English-speaking countries.

It scans blogs, social media and news sites from the leading 275,000 print and electronic outlets around the world.

As well as featuring in the top words of the year, Pope Francis was also the top name on the interwebs. ObamaCare was second.

Here are the full lists.

TOP WORDS OF 2013

1. 404.

2. Fail

3. Hashtag

4. @Pontifex

5. The Optic

6. Surveillance

7. Drones

8. Deficit

9. Sequestration

10. Emancipate

11. Filibuster

12. Nano

13. Twerking

14. Deadlock

15. Franken-

16. Meme

17. Stalemate

18. The Cloud

19. Phony

20. Comet

TOP NAMES OF 2013

1. Pope Francis

2. ObamaCare

3. NSA

4. Ed Snowden

5. Kate Middleton

6. IRS.

7. Ted Cruz

8. Chris Christie

9. Tea Party

10. Marathon Bombers

11. Malala Yousafzai

12. Xi Jinping

13. President Obama

14. Hassan Rouhani

15. Sochi Olympics

Source: Language Monitor.

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