Google is the top online service of the year, Instagram surpasses Twitter in the Social Media category, and Iran imposes the majority of internet blackouts, according to new statistics from an Internet infrastructure business.

A better Internet is being built by the security, performance, and reliability startup Cloudflare, Inc. Today, the company released its third annual Year in Review, which examines Internet insights, security trends, and the hottest online services for 2022.

Among the most significant developments for 2022 are:

• According to data from Cloudflare, Google was the year’s most popular service by a wide margin. The search engine leader bested YouTube (#5), Facebook (#2), Apple, and TikTok (tied at #3).
• In 2022, Facebook ranked first among social media platforms, with TikTok coming in second. In the Social Media category, Instagram (#3) surpassed Twitter (#4): the photo and video-sharing app pushed Twitter from third place in August.
• Due to the start of the FIFA World Cup and Christmas shoppers, Internet traffic worldwide increased in late November, making Black Friday the busiest day online in 2022.
• The United States produced more phishing emails in 2022 than the next 22 nations put together.
• With 60 recorded Internet blackouts this year, Iran has shut down the Internet more frequently than any other nation, making up one-third of all Internet shutdowns that Cloudflare examined.

“Cloudflare has built one of the world’s largest networks that offers a unique view of Internet traffic and online activity around the world”, “The world continues to rely on the Internet, and we are humbled to have been able to do our part to keep the world connected through protests, conflicts, and natural disasters in 2022. It’s a privilege to help build a better, more transparent and more informed Internet.”

Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare

This information was obtained using Cloudflare Radar, a free service that enables anybody to monitor global trends and Internet insights. Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 public DNS Resolver, which is commonly used as a quick and private means to access the Internet, and aggregated and anonymized data from the company’s worldwide network, one of the largest in the world with 275+ cities and 100+ countries, are what power Radar.