But question and answer site Ask.com‘s year-end review of what was big and popular in 2012 focused, appropriately, on the questions people asked over the past year.

Sure, Gangnam Style is huge … but what the heck is it, actually? And Lance Armstrong has been semi-officially disgraced … but did he actually take performance-enhancing drugs? Mitt Romney said something about 47 percent of us … but what, exactly?

“With nearly half of the queries on Ask.com in the form of a full question, we get a snapshot of not only what captured consumers’ attention, but also what piqued their curiosity,” Valerie Combs, vice president of communications for Ask.com, said in a statement.

The result is a fascinating insight into not just what people are searching for, but why. And what, specifically, they want to know about a person, event, or concept.

Here are Ask’s top news search terms for 2012:

1. 2012 Olympics. How many medals did the US gymnastics team win?
2. Hurricane Sandy. What is the damage from Hurricane Sandy?
3. Black Knight shooting. What happened at the Colorado shooting?
4. Jerry Sandusky. What is Jerry Sandusky’s sentence?
5. iPhone 5. When will the iPhone 5 be released?
6. Facebook IPO. When is the Facebook IPO?
7. Lance Armstrong. Did Lance Armstrong take drugs?
8. Whitney Houston. How did Whitney Houston die?
9. Costa Concordia. How did the Costa Concordia sink?
10. Trayvon Martin. Why was Trayvon Martin Shot?

Political queries were, understandably, dominated by the 2012 U.S. presidential election. However, social issues such as rape and gay marriage entered the list, as did Europe and the Greece-inspired Euro crisis that wasn’t. Oh, and Clint Eastwood talking to a chair apparently confused a LOT of people.

1. Presidential race. Who will win the Presidential race?
2. Democratic National Convention. When is Clinton speaking at the DNC?
3. Mitt Romney. What did Mitt Romney say about 47 percent?
4. Republican National Convention. Why did Clint Eastwood talk to a chair in his speech?
5. Chick-Fil-A. What did the CEO of Chick-Fil-A say about gay marriage?
6. Todd Akin. What did Todd Akin say about legitimate rape?
7. Gay marriage. Where is gay marriage legal?
8. Obamacare. What is Obamacare?
9. Greece bankruptcy. Is Greece bringing down the Euro?
10. John Edwards. Was John Edwards found guilty?

Celeb questions were inevitably popular, including Prince Harry’s didn’t-stay-in-Vegas indiscretions and the globe-shaking controversy over when Snooki’s baby would be born. People wanted to know what size diamond Brangelina gave to itself, and whether, in fact, young Olympic greek-god-even-if-he-is-American Ryan Lochte had a girlfriend.

1. Kristen Stewart. Will Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart get back together?
2. Katie Holmes. Was Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise’s marriage fake?
3. Psy – Gangnam Style. What does Gangnam Style mean?
4. Snooki. When is Snooki’s baby due?
5. Prince Harry. What will happen to Prince Harry because of the nude pictures?
6. Brad Pitt. How big is Angelina’s engagement ring?
7. Carly Rae Jepsen. What is the best Call Me Maybe parody?
8. Jessica Biel. When are Justin and Jessica getting married?
9. Miley Cyrus. Why did Miley Cyrus cut her hair?
10. Ryan Lochte. Does Ryan Lochte have a girlfriend?

For the answers, of course, you’ll have to check the site. All except one: Gangnam style is, in fact, just old-fashioned fake pony riding.

Without, of course, the fake pony.

Here’s a video flipbook Ask put together of the top queries of 2012:

In 2011, YouTube “was once again doing what YouTube does best: giving people a global stage,” said a company spokesperson in an email to VentureBeat.

From Karmin’s cover of Chris Brown’s Look at Me Now (a wild success receiving rave reviews — err, comments) to Rebecca Black’s disastrous troll of a music video (which nonetheless propelled the hapless girl into Internet stardom, a sympathy shout-out from Lady Gaga and a Katy Perry video), the past year wasn’t so much a break from the norm as it was a celebration of YouTube’s most interesting premise, that of giving a voice to any goober with a webcam.

We won’t bore you by embedding all the most-watched videos of the year — we think we’ll all be better off for not hearing “Friday” ever again — but here are some hand-picked favorites.

Third Most-Watched Video of 2011: Jack Sparrow, ft. Michael Bolton

Thanks to Andy Samberg, we now know that the aging crooner is a huge cineophile.

Most-Watched Political Video: Zack Wahls Speaks About Family

During a public forum in the Iowa House of Representatives, one young man made a simple statement that resounded around the world. Wahls, who was raised by two women, gave same-sex marriage advocates fodder for positive discussions in a heated political climate.

Tenth Most-Watched Music Video: Katy Perry, Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)

This eighties movie-inspired clip features the adorkable Miss Perry and a slew of eighties period characters, from Kenny G to Debbie Gibson. Before the vid hit the ‘Tube, Perry tweeted, “I told someone about my new music video I just filmed & they responded with ‘Wow, that’s gonna break the Internet.’”

Most-Viewed Proposal Video: Greatest Marriage Proposal EVER!!!

Yeah, we’re losing our privacy megabyte by megabyte, but we’re also sharing heart-warming moments in one another’s lives. Here’s one man’s elaborate, “awww”-inspiring proposal to his bride-to-be.

Second Most-Watched Family Video: Telling my dad that I am gay – LIVE

As the military repealed Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, gay and lesbian soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen all over the globe were at liberty to speak openly about their orientation. The 21-year-old Randy Phillips had been anonymously posting videos to YouTube for five months leading up to the repeal. On September 20, he finally revealed himself to the world — and his father.

Tenth Most-Watched Video of 2011: Cat mom hugs baby kitten

Finally, we conclude this list with the thing that makes YouTube truly great: freakin’ cat videos, man.

To measure trends in Facebook’s status updates, data scientist Lars Backstrom looked at words or phrases in terms of the ones that grew most in status updates compared to last year. And the result? “Highs and lows of world events that started a global conversation, new uses of language online, and the sharing of popular culture between friends,” reveals Backstrom.

In similar fashion, Twitter posted its own top ten trends. The complete trend lists, including breakdowns of categories, can be found here.

As a comparison, both trend lists match up particularly well. The FIFA World Cup, Inception, Haiti earthquake, iPad, and Justin Bieber, seem to have found their way onto both. Missing surprisingly from Facebook’s list are the Oil Spill and Pulpo Paul the Octopus, which may be due to the fact that they were largely termed in 2010 itself, and the equally surprising topper was “HMU” — short-hand acronym for “hit me up.”

Worth noting is that while Facebook’s list measured trends relative to their weight in 2009, Twitter’s looked at 2010 alone. Also, Twitter maintains a trending list visible to all its users, which may more or less perpetuate the trends themselves. In contrast, Facebook’s status updates are mostly implicit and spread naturally from user to user.