THE State’s new Premier, fidget spinners, one of China’s best-paid actors and the startling rise in the value of crypto-currencies all caught the attention of West Australians this year, according to Google’s search tracker.

Google Trends reveals West Australians were the most likely across the country to search for the easiest way to buy Bitcoin.

It also tells us that West Aussies were the least likely to check whether the Bitcoin craze is a financial bubble that will inevitably burst in a rain of tears and lost cash.

How to interpret the trends is a matter for sociologists — it could be a sign of WA’s irrepressible optimism. It could also be a sign the State is full of irredeemable mugs. Or both. But it surely says something.

Google Trends does not put a figure on how many people searched particular topics in a given region. But it does tells us what the most-searched terms were in a particular area, as well as the “rising” trends — those recording the biggest jump from the previous year.

The list of rising stars tells us more, and throws up a few posers as well.

Labor leader Mark McGowan was the biggest name in news searches, as we tried to get to know the Premier.

Hardly surprising, given the State election also topped the lists in the aftermath of the March electoral bloodbath.

Other search terms hint at the ways our community is growing more diverse, in culture and interests.

Enough people searched for news about Zanilia Zhao Li Ying — one of the biggest stars of Chinese film and television — to put her in the WA Google charts.

We also wanted news about Bali’s Mt Agung volcano and we closely tracked the Australian Open tennis results.

And, in news that will surprise nobody, many people wanted to know what a fidget spinner was, what it looks like and where to buy one — fidget spinner searches take up three of the top five slots on Google’s top shopping searches for the year.

Whatever catches out attention next year, you can almost guarantee that gadget won’t make any of the lists.