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Google on Wednesday released its ‘Year in Search’ report that revealed top search trends in India in 2020.
Even in a pandemic year, Indians’ love for cricket remained intact with ‘ Indian Premier League (IPL) ’ dominating Google’s most searched for list, followed by COVID-19.
Interestingly, a government scheme, ‘Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi’ or ‘ PM Kisan Scheme’ that provides monetary support to farmers, made it to the top trending list as netizens looked for latest news, information, and updates on the scheme.
Following searches for IPL and Coronavirus, search for the ‘U.S. presidential election’ triggered a significant looking up activity. Bihar and Delhi elections too were hot in Google’s search list this year.
On the top trending personalities list, the U.S. President-elect Joe Biden and TV journalist Arnab Goswami were searched for the most in 2020.
Among international personalities, North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Un, Afghanistan cricketer Rashid Khan and India-origin U.S. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were the most searched people on Google.
Top trending movie of the year
Late actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s Dil Bechara emerged the top trending movie of 2020, followed by Tamil action-drama Soorarai Pottru . While Bollywood biopics like Tanhaji, Shakuntala Devi , and Gunjan Saxena made it into the top five spots. Extraction was the only Hollywood movie that made it to the list this year.
As COVID-induced lockdown kept people indoors, queries on Web Series surged this year. Netflix’s crime dramaMoney Heist topped the list, while India’s Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story took the second spot. These were followed by Bigg Boss 14 and Mirzapur 2 .
Other important news events such as the frequent ‘Lockdowns’, ‘Locust swarm attack’ and international news events like the ‘Beirut explosion’ and ‘Bushfires in Australia’ made it to the list.
As people started working from home, there was a surge in 'How to' and 'What is' searches. 'How to make paneer?' and 'How to increase immunity?' topped the list, followed by 'How to make dalgona coffee’.
While 'What is' queries included the 'What is binod?', and many virus-related queries such as 'What is plasma therapy?' and 'What is hantavirus?'.
In addition to this, local searches surged with ‘Near me’ queries dominated by 'Food shelters near me' followed by 'COVID test near me.' As majority of population worked from home, searches for 'Broadband connection near me' and 'Laptop shop near me' figured prominently this year.
