A Snapshot of the World in 2021
There is probably no better historic account of the state of the world than Google’s annual report on Search Trends. It provides an almost unique insight into what people are thinking, feeling and wondering about. For example, you probably already knew or suspected that the Pandemic has made people around the world scared and lonely. A look at some of the top search topics on Google though really drives it home.
— In January, searches for “affirmations” of “I am worthy, I am loved,” reached an all-time high worldwide.
— In February “soulmate” was searched more than ever before.
— In April ‘love you’ in sign language was searched more than ever worldwide.
— Also in April, ‘how to meet someone’ was a big search, mainly in Spanish.
— In May, ‘how to maintain mental health’ was searched more than ever before.
— In July the focus was travel, getting away, road trips and “camping with kids.”
— In September the big search question was “how to learn” on a variety of topics.
But there’s much more to the survey than that. Much, much more. For example, have you ever heard of these?
— Dogecoin? It’s ‘dog coin’ cyptocurrency created as a joke but used by breeders.
— Hamantaschen? It’s a cookie celebrating the Jewish festival of Purim.
— Charcuteri Board? It’s a French created platter of meats, cheeses, fruits and nuts.
— Shogoyaki? It’s a Japanese dish of ginger and pork meat, grilled or fried.
There were 12 subject areas or categories that formed the primary searches, appearing first in the Global search but also in nearly every country, including the United States: General searches, News, Actors, Athletes, Games, Movies, Passings, People, Songs, Sports, TV Shows and Recipes.
Comparing the two sets of responses between the U.S. and the world show many similarities — but what may be more interesting was the differences. For example, under the Global tab, Afghanistan was the number one NEWS topic that people around the world searched for. Yet it did not even make it to the top five of news items in the U.S.’s search trends. Instead the number one topic in the U.S. was Mega-Millions. Similarly, the Covid Vaccine also scored as a top news interest item globally, but it too failed to make the top five list in America. One has to wonder — Why?
Stimulus check and Georgia senate race were in the top five U.S. searches but, understandably, did not appear in the Global searches’ top five. Oddly, two topics that made the top five list on both accounts were ‘AMC Stock’ and ‘GME Stock.’ (AMC is AMC Entertainment which are the movie theaters) and GME is the GameStop corporation.) Their global interest may be explained by America’s huge financial and cultural impact on the world.
In the general category of ‘SEARCHES,’ sports dominated the world rankings with the cricket matches between Australia, India and England scoring the number one and two spot and the Indian Premier League taking the number three spot, followed by the NBA and the Euro 2021 soccer game rounding out the top five. Under that same category in the United States the NBA scored the top spot. After that it was the death of Rapper DMX , then the murder of Gabby Petito by boyfriend Brian Laundrie and teenaged killer Kyle Rittenhouse. The fatal shooting by Alec Baldwin also was a point of high interest in several categories.
The American influence on the world dialogue can be seen in the various cultural or social categories such as TV Shows and Movies. Netflix’s Squid Game, Bridgerton and Cobra Kai appeared in the top five TV shows globally and in the U.S. while Marvel’s Loki and Wanda Vision also scored. Marvel also scored in the Movies category in both areas with Eternals and Black Widow while Netflix scored Globally with Red Notice, but nothing in the United States.
The American influence can be seen in the ‘Songs’ category although it is more of a mixture. It strikes me as funny that the country music song Fancy Like by Walker Hayes made the global top five list but not the American one while Britain’s Adele’s recent release Easy on Me made the U.S. top five but not the Global top five. But here’s the one I loved. Making the top five list globally was MAPA by the Filipino boy band SB19. It is this year’s answer to the hit Gangnam Style from 1912. Remember that?
The ‘Games’ category may have shown the most diverse country sources: Japan through Capcom’s Monster Hunter Rise and Resident Evil Village scoring globally and in America; Sweden with the Companies Dice’s Battlefield 2042 and Iron Gate’s Valheim while American companies only scored two — Xbox and Innersloth’s Among Us.
The American influence is far greater than the proportion of American-based Google users would indicate. The following link shows, by country, the percentage of Internet users who rely primarily on Google for search. America is well down on the list, but its 300 Million Internet users account for about a quarter of all searches worldwide. Still, that leaves several billion Internet users around the world who account for the other three quarters of the searches.
It should be noted that the 12 categories that appeared in both the Global and U.S. search categories also appeared in most other country reports as well. It is a telling commentary about America that under the United States, there are six search questions that are in Spanish.
Also in the U.S., there were 12 other categories: Aesthetics, Celebrities Together, How to Be, How to Help Others. How to Pronounce, How to style, Members, Musicians, Near Me, Or, Sustainable and Updates. Similarly, the search categories for some countries also varied, although there is no explanation why.
Also telling is the fact that there were 23 countries in which the trending reports were not available. And, again, there is no explanation why. Some you might understand — China, Myanmar, Bangladesh. But others don’t make sense — Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Ecuador. Still, that leaves a lot of countries where you can see what the hot topics were — and even better, compare what worked in the different countries and what different things you can learn from them.
