In 2014, the Ice Bucket Challenge, Lebron James, Beyonce, the Kardashian clan, and Costa Rica had something very interesting in common: They topped Internet queries from United States users on search engine giant Bing, owned and operated by Microsoft. Within the category of Vacation Destinations, Costa Rica was not only the most searched term on Bing; it was also the only Central American nation on the Top Ten list.

Costa Rica was closely followed by Hawaii and Puerto Rico, the latter a territory of the U.S. and the former one of its most beautiful states. The magnificent city London, where Costa Rican tourism officials are hoping to draw visitors from, was number four on Bing’s list of choice destination researched by vacation hopefuls from the U.S.

Jamaica, Paris, Lake Tahoe, the Bahamas, Aruba, and Amsterdam rounded off the Top Ten List.

In describing Costa Rica, Bing staff writes:

This dream destination for beach lovers and adventurers boasts extensive national parks and coasts on both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.

This is not the first time that Bing highlights Costa Rica as part of its search engine experience. In May 2012, The Costa Rica Star reported on a (then) new feature that Microsoft added to its online search service:

Many Internet users turned to Microsoft’s Bing search engine yesterday, entered Costa Rica in the search bar, and checked the results presented by what the tech giant called “the most significant update to Bing since we launched three years ago.”

Microsoft chose Costa Rica as an example of Bing’s new powerful Sidebar feature. Sidebar is a direct response to Google’s “Search, Plus Your World” feature.

On the official Bing blog post announcing the release, Bing vice presidents Derrick Connell and Harry Shum explained the social media features of Sidebar:

“For example, if you’re searching for diving spots in Costa Rica, with the new Bing, you may discover that one of your Facebook friends knows a great spot, based on photos from their last trip to Costa Rica that they shared on Facebook. Or you might find a friend who lives in Costa Rica based on his or her Facebook profile.”

For the record, news articles from The Costa Rica Star feature prominently on the beta section of Bing News for U.S. Internet searchers.