Think about it. What do you think people were searching for in 2020? In India? The rest of the world?
According to Google’s India Search Report 2020, the biggest growth this year was for searches related to ‘Near me’ and ‘The Best’. This is the same as early 2020, surprisingly. The Search Report for Malaysia and Singapore also lists Near Me and Best ~ as the top growing categories.
Google reports, in a separate article, that the search for ‘Best~’ has risen since 2019 across geographies and categories.
What do you think people mean when they search for the best? The Best Rating, given by other internet users, or the best features, as given by researchers? What does Best mean to you?
The India story
The most searched term all over the world in 2020 was ‘Coronavirus’. In India, this search peaked in March – April 2020 and then slowly came down.
It was not just the absolute searches that went up. The percentage increase in some search terms was mindboggling.
Here are a few samples:
| Term | % Increase |
| Pharmacy Near me | 58% |
| Grocery Delivery near me | 550% |
| Ration Dukaan | 300% |
| Learn Online | 85% |
| Teach Online | 148% |
| Data Science | 300% |
| 5 minutes recipes | 56% |
| Immunity | 500% |
| Overnight Mutual Funds | 411% |
| Mutual Funds to invest now | 249% |
| How to Pay electricity bill online | 180% |
Search for ‘grocery delivery near me’ went up by 550% and ‘ration dukaan’ went up by 300%.
Learners at Heart
But, Indians are also learners at heart. They used 2020 to learn. Searches for ‘gym at home’ increased 93%, ‘5-minute recipes’ increased 56%, but ‘machine learning’ and ‘data science’ increased by 300% each!
The search query for ‘How to pay electricity bill online’ increased by 180%.
Coming back to Google Trends
According to The Year in Search 2020, Coronavirus testing near me was NOT the most searched ‘Near Me’. Believe it or not, it was Food Shelters Near Me.
This search peaked in April 2020.
Question for you: Can you remember what happened in April 2020 that made Indians think of food shelters near them?
The most searched How to question was not ‘How to increase immunity’ (though that came a close second). It was ‘How to make paneer’.
What were the others? Here they are, in descending order:
A. How to increase immunity
B. How to make Dalgona coffee
C. How to link PAN with Aadhaar card
D. How to make sanitizer at home.
Here is a comparative trend of these:
Image is a screenshot from Google Trends. All rights with Google.
Some Global Trends
Here are some interesting things in global search trends:
Among Us became the most searched game.
Parasite was the most searched movie.
Joe Biden was the most searched person!
In Australia, Philippines, and Canada, US elections was the most searched term!
In the UK, DIY ruled!
We hope you had fun reading this report!
What, if anything, did you think after reading this? Would you like to read more on this topic? What are the questions that come to your mind?