The countdown to the end of the year can only mean one thing; another round up of Google’s top search terms from the past 12 months.
As usual, most of the terms dominating the rankings this year come as no surprise. While the overwhelming majority of top terms last year were COVID-related, this year was more about sports.
In fact, the search term “COVID vaccine” plummeted all the way to number-four in the rankings, behind three sport-related queries.
Google reported that ‘Euros’ was the top search term of 2021, followed by ‘Premier League’ and then ‘Christian Eriksen’. According to Matt Cooke, head of Google News Lab, the terms for 2021 show how much of the country took solace in entertainment and domestic duties as an escape from the unpleasantness of the past 24 months.
‘It’s no surprise that 2021 has revealed some interesting insights into the zeitgeist of the nation,’ he said.
‘During a year of unpredictability, we have turned to sport, entertainment, gardening, recipes and UK-based travel to get us through some of the most frustrating and difficult times,’
‘We have seen searches for prominent women dominate the top of our lists, as well as huge rises in second-hand and sustainability queries over 2021.’
Clearly facing the crisis that is a temporarily social media outage, the most common question asked by Google users this year was “Is Facebook down?” Followed in second position by “Is WhatsApp down?” and “When will lockdown end?” these are interesting insights into the priorities of the masses.
Not to mention, the inclusion of “Where does vanilla flavouring come from?” as the sixth most asked question of the entire year.
For more insight into what people have been looking for over the past 12 months, here is a brief rundown of just a few of Google’s top search terms by category:
All terms
- Euros
- Premier League
- Christian Eriksen
- Covid vaccine
- Prince Philip
- Matt Hancock
- Emma Raducanu
- Sarah Everard
- England vs Denmark
- Sean Lock
News
- Covid vaccine
- Matt Hancock
- Sarah Everard
- Afghanistan
- GME
- Kyle Rittenhouse
- Gabby Petito
- Green list countries
- Lockdown
- Palestine
Sport
- Euros
- Premier League
- England vs Denmark
- Champions League
- England vs Italy
- Wimbledon
- Olympic medal table
- England vs Germany
- England vs. Scotland
- NBA
People
- Christian Eriksen
- Matt Hancock
- Emma Raducanu
- Piers Morgan
- Alec Baldwin
- Travis Scott
- Ronaldo
- Jack Grealish
- Tyson Fury
- Ashley Cain
Political Figures
- Matt Hancock
- Joe Biden
- Bernie Sanders
- Greta Thunberg
- Nicola Sturgeon
- Sajid Javid
- Owen Paterson
- Jackie Weaver
- Angela Rayner
- Nancy Pelosi
Athletes
- Christian Eriksen
- Emma Raducanu
- Ronaldo
- Jack Grealish
- Tyson Fury
- Harry Kane
- Anthony Joshua
- Conor McGregor
- Andy Murray
- Gareth Southgate
TV
- Squid Game
- Bridgerton
- The Serpent
- Line Of Duty
- Love Island
- Behind Her Eyes
- Its A Sin
- Pembrokeshire Murders
- Vigil
- Friends Reunion
Film
- Dune
- Black Widow
- Eternals
- No Time To Die
- Red Notice
- Army Of The Dead
- Shang Chi
- Halloween Kills
- Suicide Squad
- Jungle Cruise
Song lyrics
- Poker Face lyrics
- Easy On Me lyrics
- Sweet Caroline lyrics
- Brown Sugar lyrics
- good 4 u lyrics
- Three Lions lyrics
- driver’s license lyrics
- Body remix lyrics
- Bad Habits lyrics
- All Too Well lyrics
Memes
- Matt Hancock memes
- Bernie Sanders chair meme
- 4 lads meme
- hamster meme
- Prince Philip memes
- its coming home memes
- Squid Game meme
- sea shanty meme
- homeschooling meme
- Line of Duty memes
All questions
- Is Facebook down?
- Is WhatsApp down?
- When will lockdown end?
- What does COP26 stand for?
- When will I get the vaccine?
- Where does vanilla flavouring come from?
- How many times has Italy won the euros?
- How many cases in my area?
- What does impeachment mean?
- When does Love Island finish?
When?
- When will lockdown end?
- When will I get the vaccine?
- When does Love Island finish?
- When does lockdown start?
- When does Love Island start?
- When do shops reopen?
- When will schools reopen?
- When do gyms reopen?
- When do hairdressers open?
- When does the Olympics start?
Who?
- Who are the Taliban?
- Who won Logan vs Floyd?
- Who left Strictly?
- Who do England play next?
- Who is Ashley Cain?
- Who will England play next?
- Who is H?
- Who paid the largest criminal fine in history?
- Who is Bernie Sanders?
- Who wins Squid Game?
Recipes
- Banana bread recipe
- Sex on the beach recipe
- Pimms recipe
- Iced coffee recipe
- Baked oats recipe
- Scallops recipe
- Overnight oats recipe
- Malt loaf recipe
- Pornstar martini recipe UK
- Sourdough starter recipe