Google (GOOGL) released its annual “Year in Search” list on Wednesday, offering a glimpse into the top trending search terms that saw a spike in traffic from the year prior, both globally and broken down by country and categories.
Last year, “coronavirus” predictably topped the trending search list globally and dominated much of the US list. This year, the top trending global searches were more sports-focused.
The Australia vs India Men’s World Cup cricket match and India’s match against England in the same tournament accounted for the top two trending global searches for the year, perhaps reflecting the growing global influence of India’s hundreds of millions of internet users. The T20 Cricket World Cup and the Indian Premier League cricket championship — which was suspended due to Covid-19 in May — were also on the top 10 worldwide trending searched terms list. The NBA also ranked on the global list — and topped the US trending search list. With the Euro 2021 and Copa America soccer tournaments, sports topics accounted for eight of the top 10 global trending searches. (The global “news” category was more pandemic-focused, with COVID and COVID Vaccine making the top 10.)
Deceased rapper DMX and breakout Korean Netflix show Squid Game also made the lists both globally and in the United States.
In the United States, politics and finance filled out the top 10 trending search list. The Georgia Senate race, which decided control of the Senate, made the list, as did the subject of stimulus payments from the government.
The Mega Millions jackpot made both the list of top US trending and the list of news searches. AMC’s stock also appeared on both, and GameStop appeared on the US news list, pointing to the high interest in the meme-induced frenzy surrounding these stocks this year.
