At the end of each year, Google releases a compilation of the year's top searches. Which stories captured our attention, and what questions were we asking?

Here's a sampling of Google's year in review - to further explore all of the information available, visit www.google.com/trends.

Have you ever noticed that the ads you see on YouTube sometimes feature local businesses (Socket included)? Did you know that most of your YouTube ads are tailored specifically to you?

Ad space online is sold differently than it is for, say, television or newspaper space. In fact, many of those ad spaces are auctioned off per user, per view. You might not realize that, before you watch your 3 minute video clip, there’s an incredibly fast bidding war happening in the microseconds before the winning advertisement plays.

Here’s a quick breakdown of how that bidding system works...

If you’ve ever paid attention to those small ads floating around your favorite site, you might have noticed that they’re eerily specific - almost as if they’re tailored especially for you. That’s because they are.

Learn how companies collect your information, how they use it, and how you can manage your privacy online.