Open Post: Hosted By Google’s Most Searched Term For 2020, Which Was Unsurprisingly “Coronavirus”
It’s nearly the end of 2020, and Google has counted up everything people searched for over the past 12 months, and let everyone know what was being looked up. They released the top search terms across a variety of categories, from news to people to recipes to TV shows. And if Google could come up with a search term to represent it all, it could be: Pandemic Stuff. Because guess what? The search results reflect everything we were doing while we were stuck inside.
Starting off with the general most-searched terms, everyone was looking up info on COVID-19. Except for the first time in 9 months, COVID-19 wasn’t the name on everybody’s lips. Or rather, their fingers. “Coronavirus,” and not COVID-19, was the most-searched term of 2020. via Complex:
As the events of the past 12 months have shown us, this is most often the core question of existence, particularly during a ruthless pandemic that’s been met with a sobering seriousness by many and a baffling sense of indifference from others. On Wednesday, Google came through with their annual deep-dive into a year’s worth of search trends, unsurprisingly revealing the No. 1 search was coronavirus. Others placing high in the general searches trend list include the 2020 presidential election, the late Kobe Bryant, and Zoom.
According to Google’s calculations, the top ten searches were:
1. Coronavirus
2. Election results
3. Kobe Bryant
4. Zoom
5. IPL
6. India vs New Zealand
7. Coronavirus update
8. Coronavirus symptoms
9. Joe Biden
10. Google classroom
Of course, pre-pandemic, a lot of people were Googling Kobe Bryant, to find information on his and his daughter Gianna Bryant’s death, which happened a little over three weeks into the new year. Searches for election results and Zoom made sense, because a whole lot of people were really invested in this year’s American Presidential Election, and because they were quarantined at home working via Zoom meetings. IPL, well – I actually had to Google that one. According to my search results, that would be the Indian Premiere League, an Indian cricket league.
Coronavirus also topped the searches for News. In the category of Movies, the most searched term was Parasite, this year’s Best Picture winner at the Oscars. The top search in Recipes was “Dalgona coffee,” which really takes you back to the early days of the pandemic, when people where artistically whipping up their instant coffee. The top search in People was Joe Biden, while the top search in TV was Tiger King. And nobody should be surprised in the least what the most searched lyrics were. That honor goes to “WAP.” Listen, when you’re popping your business to “WAP,” it’s so important to know exactly what you’re planning on swiping like a credit card.
You can see all of Google’s top ten searches here. Google also released a video regarding the year’s most searched terms, and they explain that regardless of the term, people still commonly searched, “Why.” Are they sure it’s “why,” and not, “WHY“? Because an all-caps why is much more 2020, I think.
In times of uncertainty, people seek understanding and meaning. 2020 was a year of deep questioning, as the world searched "why" more than ever, according to Google Trends. Explore more trends from the year at https://t.co/JdD6lj4ru9#YearInSearch pic.twitter.com/wAfuARB3u9
— Google (@Google) December 9, 2020
Google knows all of our business, so I’m so I am a little surprised that they don’t publish more comprehensive search results. For example, I wish Google had published exactly how people were searching for Zoom. Because you know they weren’t just searching “Zoom.” If I had to guess, there was a lot of, “How to download Zoom,” followed by, “How to tell if Zoom camera is on or off,” and eventually, “How to find new job.”
Pic: Google