Bahubali 2 topped the list of Google’s most searched items in India in 2017, overtaking everything else that happened this year. The Telugu blockbuster was briefly the highest grossing Indian film of all time, until Dangal beat it. Incidentally, Dangal is fourth on the list of most searched words or phrases in 2017.
Bollywood reigns supreme in the list of 10 most searched items in India with Half Girlfriend , Badrinath ki Dulhaniya , Munna Michael , Jagga Jasoos and Raees and Dangal taking up six spots. The remaining three spots are taken up by the other thing that holds India’s collective attention — cricket. The IPL takes the second spot overall, with Champions Trophy and the phrase ‘live cricket score’ also making it to the list.
Among entertainers whose names were searched for the most, women dominated. Actors Sunny Leone and Disha Patani, Bigg Boss contestants Arshi Khan and Sapna Choudhary and Youtuber Vidya Vox were the top five.
Google’s Year in Search video shows that the most searched phrase was “how to”. While the expected topics made it to the top of the list this year — globally it was Hurricane Irma, iPhone 8 and iPhone X — a lot of the how-to queries were symptomatic of the upheaval in world politics that the year has seen.
The video released by Google starts with text that reads, “This year more than ever we asked how.” ‘How many refugees are there in the world,’ ‘how to help refugees,’ ‘how to calm a dog during a storm,’ ‘how to help flood victims,’ ‘how to help Las Vegas, Syria, Rohingya, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Venezuela, etc.,’ and ‘how to freeze credit,’ were some of the questions that dominated the search engine.
However, it wasn’t just about disasters. ‘How to watch the eclipse’ featured in the top searches list. So did ‘how to make a difference,’ ‘how to be a strong woman,’ ‘how to be a good parent,’ and ‘how to be a superhero.’
India’s how to questions were topped by ‘how to link Aadhaar with PAN card’ ( here’s how ), ‘how to file GST returns,’ ‘how to book Jio phone’ and ‘how to buy bitcoin in India.’
In news, North Korea, Bitcoin, the Manchester shooting and Las Vegas were most searched globally, and in India it was GST, the UP election results, CBSE results, the IPL and ICC Champions Trophy.
