The film begins with a sequence of trying moments from the year, from the Orlando shooting to the Brussels attacks, ending with a shot of the little boy found in the rubble of Aleppo.

We fade to black and hear light strumming of a ukulele as the film takes an optimistic turn.

The iconic Google Search bar animates over footage from the year, highlighting acts of hope, humanity, and love within the year’s biggest searches. From a “Refugees Welcome” sign to the hands of D’Agostino helping Nikki Hamblin at the Olympics, we see the year in a new light. The film is driven by a breakout song from 2016, “Light the Sky” by Grace Vanderwaal. The film ends with the message “Love is out there. Search on.”

Every year, Google's Year in Search film recaps the year's biggest searches. But 2016 left people searching for the good in this year.

Our challenge was to create a film that reflected the search data, while celebrating a year most people just wanted to forget.

When we dug deeper into the searches, a surprising trend emerged: even in dark moments, there were signs of love. For example, after the Orlando shooting, “blood donation Orlando” trended.

We used these data insights to inform our campaign idea: even in a challenging year, love was still out there. All you had to do was search for it.