The 20 most read articles on Ars Technica in 2022

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As 2022 dawned, we knew we'd be writing about a few things: the global pandemic, all the cool stuff Apple and Google have done, rocket launches, and cool stuff about the artificial intelligence. But every year brings surprises, and 2022 was no exception.

Yes, we thought there would be a lot of articles about Elon Musk on Ars Technica this year. After all, he runs SpaceX and Tesla, two companies we cover frequently. But if someone had told me that Musk would become "Chief Twit" and end up on the front page of Ars because of his impulse purchase of Twitter and the...interesting decisions he's made since he was taken over the company, I would have asked them to move the dutchie to the left side.

2022 has been a long and strange journey. And it's almost over.

So let's go back to what you, our readers, found most fascinating about Ars this year.

20. Google's past failures were on full display at I/O 2022

Enlarge / This wasn't a real Google I/O 2022 slide, but it could have been. Google / Ron Amadeo

Google is arguably known for three things: absolutely dominating the market for Internet advertising, absolutely dominating the market for Internet browsers, and absolutely dominating the market for destroying your own products. At Google I/O 2022, the company decided to dabble in device necromancy. Case in point: Android tablets.

The pinnacle of Google's Android tablet development dates back to 2011, when we saw the release of Android 3.0 Honeycomb. I'll let Ron Amadeo handle it :

"[E]Very later version of Android and Google app update watered down the tablet interface until it was gone. App developers took negligence from Google as a sign that they also needed to stop making Android tablets, and the ecosystem collapsed.

"After the release of the Pixel C in 2015, Google exited the tablet market for three years, then released the Pixel Slate Chrome-OS tablet. It then exited the tablet market for another three years. Now, it's back. The company's new plans to produce another year-long marvel like the Pixel Slate?"

Ron went into depth on Google's product strategy for 2022, and he'll be sure to flag when new and resurrected products will be phased out in the future.

19. Never-before-seen malware harms data in Russian courts and mayoral offices

In February, Russia illegally invaded Ukraine, unleashing hell on its neighbor. In addition to firing bullets, rockets, artillery shells and other munitions, Russia and Ukraine have engaged in bouts of cyber warfare against each other.

Ukraine, or a group sympathetic to the country, has launched never-before-seen malware on Russian courts and mayoral offices across the country. Called CryWiper, the malware permanently wipes data on infected systems.

"After examining a sample of malware, we discovered that this Trojan, although it poses as ransomware and extorts money from the victim to 'decrypt' the data, does not actually encrypt, but deliberately destroys data from the affected system," according to analysis by security firm Kaspersky. "In addition, a...