Google’s Year in Search 2022

The video above is Google’s “Year in Search” video for 2022, and below are some of the “top five” searches globally, in New Zealand, and in the USA. This is something I’ve done several years because, as I said in 2020 (the last time I posted about the Year in Search), “I think it’s important to have a record of what was on our collective minds during a year, and posts like this make it easier to refer back to later,” and these posts make it especially easy for me.

Here’s what was trending in 2022:

Global

Top 5 overall searches in the world: 1 Wordle, 2 India vs England, 3 Ukraine, 4 Queen Elizabeth, 5 Ind vs SA. Top 5 news searches in the world: 1 Ukraine, 2 Queen Elizabeth passing, 3 Election results, 4 Powerball numbers, 5 Monkeypox.

New Zealand

Top 5 overall searches in New Zealand: 1 Wordle, 2 Locations of Interest (probably refers to Covid), 3 Australian Open, 4 Covid cases today NZ, 5 All Blacks vs Ireland. Top 5 news searches in New Zealand: 1 Covid cases today, 2 Ukraine, 3 Queen Elizabeth, 4 Costco, 5 Will Smith.

United States

Top 5 overall searches in the USA: 1 Wordle, 2 Election results, 3 Betty White, 4 Queen Elizabeth, 5 Bob Saget. Top 5 news searches in the USA: 1 Election results, 2 Queen Elizabeth passing, 3 Ukraine, 4 Powerball numbers, 5 Hurricane Ian.

What I find interesting about the searches this year is how common some topics are. The most-searched things within countries are often specific to that country or its region of the world, but somethings transcend borders. I wonder if “Powerball numbers”, the fourth most-searched thing globally, is because of the USA (where it was also fourth in the same category), because not every country has something similar to the USA’s powerball draw. I had lots of similar “I wonder if…” and even just “Huh!” moments when I looked at other search categories (you can get to the three I shared by clicking on any of the three section titles, and once there you can change the country whose search results are displayed).

Funny thing to me, though, is that “Wordle” was the number one general search term globally and in New Zealand and the USA (and for other countries, too). I hadn’t really realised it until I looked at what was trending in search in 2022, but I see now that this year was apparently a lot more boring than recent years preceding it. Here’s hoping the searches in 2023 are equally boring!