Google released its 2012 Zeitgeist list earlier this week, highlighting the top searches in different categories and countries around the world.
The list of most-searched food companies in the U.S. was topped by Costco. Pizza chains dominated the next three spots, starting with Pizza Hut, then Domino's, followed by Papa John's.
The Food Network was No. 5, followed by Weight Watchers, McDonald's, Chick-fil-A, Olive Garden and Allrecipes finishing at No. 10.
Notably, in the Lifestyle category and under the "food delivery" subcategory, Burger King Delivery was the top search term in the U.S. Burger King's service launched in the beginning of the year in the Washington, D.C., area, and has since spread into five states.
The burger giant's new initiative trumped "pizza delivery," "healthy delivery options" and "Chinese delivery" in the category.
Also in the Lifestyle category was "Calorie Searches." McDonald's topped this list, even though the chain began posting nutritional information in its restaurants this year.
Chipotle was also on the calorie search list, at No. 2, and Subway was No. 8. These three chains were among the search terms "calories in an avocado," "vodka calories" and "calories burned walking."
While those were the most frequent calorie searches, current trending calorie searches include Taco Bell's Cantina Bowl calories, at No. 3, Starbucks Refreshes calories (No. 4), McDonald's Oatmeal calories (No. 6) and Taco Bell's Doritos Locos Taco calories (No. 10).
Google's full 2012 Zeitgeist list, including top searches in other countries, is available online.
Top Twitter food conversations
Twitter also released its year-end topic trends. In the food category, this included:
1. IHOP
2. Starbucks
3. Waffle House
4. McDonald's
5. bbq
1. #coffee
2. Taco Bell
3. Denny's
4. Burger King
5. Olive Garden
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