Our google searches in the last couple of years
Photo by Lucia Macedo on Unsplash
“Google it,” has become common terminology in most of our lives. Gone are the days where we study or learn something from scratch– why bother when Google can do the work for you?
Out of curiosity, we did a good search down what we Googled the most. It turns out, we Google everything that we can consume from famous babies to the deaths of important people. Some of our finds though, were a bit surprising.
During this global pandemic, it is safe to say that most of us just wanted to know what was going on. Searches related to the Sars Covid-19 were not only restricted to the virus but also the global impact of the pandemic. This included keywords like toilet-paper, quarantine, hand sanitizer, panic buying, social distancing, spanish flu etc. At a time like this we can only hope that all the answers to our uncertainty lies at the heart of Google, but that’s not always the case.
Apart from the news , people are apparently big movie buffs. The movies that were Googled the most from 2019-2020 were The Avengers : Endgame, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, The Lion King, Toy Story 4 and The Joker.
Infact, surprisingly, superheroes are amongst the most Googled, since 2019.
What kind of super heroes are out there ? What makes a person a hero? Unsung heroes, unlikely heroes, sheroes, superdad, health care heroes were some of the most Googled words when the pandemic hit.
In India specifically, Chandrayaan 2, India’s lunar exploration mission became the third most-searched-for term in 2019. The Vikram Lander successfully separated from the Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter on September 2. Minutes before its scheduled soft-landing on the surface of the moon, communication with Vikram Lander was lost.
Another news story prominent that year was that article 370 granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir had been scrapped. And ofcourse, the infamous Wink Girl, Priya Prakash Varrier, was the most searched personality on Google in 2018, along with the Karnataka election results, Baam Veer (it’s apparently and Indian fantasy TV show, who knew?!) and the IPL.
My favorite bit? Alot of recipes are often Googled, and the one that won first prize in the last few years is none other than the banana bread followed closely by sourdough.
In general, it’s more evident that during times of uncertainty we turn to the internet to either feed us with information or keep us entertained till we feel safe to step out into the real world. We sometimes want to know if there is another space on this planet worth escaping to, and we find out more about it.
All in all, why do I think our searches are so random? Sometimes relevant, sometimes completely out of whack? Because it’s just who we are, honestly. You’ll notice that even the way I wrote this article mimics that.
The only real pattern seems to be that our searches are often connected to a deeply rooted and honest curiosity.
Because whatever the hell you’re thinking about today, you can probably Google it!
*searches for cute cat pictures*