If Google searches are a window into what Americans are really thinking about, then millions of us were focused on a daily online word game developed by a New York-based software engineer.<\/p>\n
The impact of the term, Wordle, the most-searched term in 2022, is what surprised Simon Rogers, trends data team lead at Google, the most about this year\u2019s data.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the top trending definitions are related to Wordles and the effect it had on our data can not be overstated,\u201d Rogers told VOA in an email.<\/p>\n
The top five most popular Google searches in 2022 \u2014 Wordle, Election results, Betty White, Queen Elizabeth and Bob Saget \u2014 also focused on politics and famous people who died this year.<\/p>\n
With 92% of the search engine market share globally, Google is the dominant way Americans seek information about the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoogle searches are reflective of what we really care about,\u201d Rogers says. \u201cIt tends to reflect what we really care about with an honesty you don\u2019t find in any other data set.\u201d<\/p>\n
The top news searches in 2022 were: Election results, Queen Elizabeth passing and Ukraine. People also wanted to know how to pronounce Qatar and Kyiv; and about things like gas prices, COVID tests and voting that were nearest to them. They also sought information on how to help Ukraine, Ukrainian refugees, abortion rights and Uvalde (the scene of a mass U.S. school shooting in Texas).<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we may expect the worst or be cynical about human motives, that\u2019s not what the data shows,\u201d Rogers says. \u201cWe want to help the people of Ukraine or host refugees. We want to help our friends if they have depression and we want to donate to good causes. That\u2019s all reflected in the data.”<\/p>\n
Rogers says there were other themes that struck him about the 2022 search data.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an incredibly intense year with really big events that were all reflected in the way we searched,\u201d he says. \u201cThe midterms [elections], for example, were actually the top searched midterms of all time. But there were also searches that really spoke to the theme of change or improvement. People searched for \u2018jobs that help\u2019 more than \u2018jobs that travel\u2019, for instance.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2021, there was some focus on COVID-19 vaccines, stimulus checks and people like Gabby Petito, Kyle Rittenhouse and Brian Laundrie \u2013 all of whom were associated with violence and death.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, it was really about coming through the pandemic and learning how to venture out again. This year is about the next stage of that journey,\u201d Rogers says. \u201cWhile [Google] Trends doesn\u2019t predict the future, given this year\u2019s theme around change, next year we might start to see the ways that people have changed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Source: Voice of America<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If Google searches are a window into what Americans are really thinking about, then millions of us were focused on a daily online word game developed by a New York-based software engineer.The impact of the term, Wordle, the most-searched term in 2022, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n