2021 witnessed people taking their first calculated steps into a post-pandemic era, however, in 2022, people explored the ‘new normal’. In this journey, Google Search helped people find a world of information – from everyday questions related to life, and new passions to details about diseases and jobs, it helped people get answers to several questions.
As the year comes to a close, Google India has come up with the ‘Year in Search 2022’ list, looking back at the instances that captured India’s interest in 2022 across a broad range of topics.
Here’s what people searched the most on Google:
In 2022, India searched the most about cricket and football, films, and also rediscovered fun experiences in the outside world. People also asked questions about global and local news events. We saw many
big-budget films with mesmerising songs in 2022. While we came together to celebrate glorious occasions such as India’s 75th year of Independence, we also sadly bid farewell to many legendary personalities. Here is India’s Year in Search 2022 recap.
Sports
In a statement, Google stated, “Indian Premier League led the pack of trending searches in India, while queries for the T20 World Cup and Asia Cup reached an all-time high. Not just on home turf, India also dominated sports trends worldwide, securing all top 5 slots in the global trending matches list. Football saw similar excitement, with searches for the ongoing FIFA World Cup as well peaking this year and making it to the trending searches of the year, along with the Indian Super League.”
It added, “On the sporting events list, women’s sports moments also shone brightly – besides marking many firsts at the Commonwealth Games, including the historic win by the Indian women’s lawn bowls team that emerged as one of the top queries around this moment – the Women’s Cricket World Cup marked its debut on the top trending searches for sporting events. Kabaddi and Tennis rounded up the trending sports events list with Pro Kabaddi League, Australian Open, and Wimbledon.”
Entertainment
The statement mentioned, “Unlike last year, theatrical releases took a lead in 2022 with popular films across languages, including pan-India films, dominating the list. Hindi film Brahmastra: Part One – Shiva and Kannada film KGF: Chapter 2 secured top spots in overall trending searches and trending movie searches; the films also made it to the top global trending movie searches. Trending movies in India included Hindi films The Kashmir Files, Laal Singh Chaddha, and Drishyam 2, Telugu films RRR and Pushpa: The Rise, Tamil film Vikram, Kannada film Kantara, with the lone English film in the list being Thor: Love and Thunder.”
That’s not all, Indian songs like Chaand Baaliyan and Srivalli also trended on Google.
Government schemes
People also searched for helpful government schemes. e-SHRAM card – a government scheme to support unorganized workers with social security benefits – made it to the trending searches and ‘how to’ queries list. Agneepath scheme – a newly launched government scheme to recruit youth in the Indian army – led the ‘what is’ search queries. Other ‘what is’ queries on Search displayed people’s interests in a diverse range of topics across news (NATO, PFI, Article 370), finance (NFT), technology (metaverse), and health (myositis).
Personalities
People also searched global and local personalities and politicians like Nupur Sharma, Droupadi Murmu, Rishi Sunak, entertainment personalities Sushmita Sen, Abdu Rozik, and Amber Heard, and sports star Pravin Tambe.
Losses of renowned personalities
News events were headlined by the saddened losses of renowned personalities across the world, including India’s nightingale Lata Mangeshkar, cricketer Shane Warne, Queen Elizabeth, and artists Sidhu Moose Wala, KK, and Bapppi Lahiri.
Events
While people showed keen interest in developments on the Russia-Ukraine war and UP elections closer to home, we also celebrated a special moment with India’s 75th year of Independence that found a spot in this category with ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’.
Food
Recipe queries presented a multi-cuisine array of delicious dishes. Indian flavours remained a favourite with dishes such as Paneer Pasanda, Malai Kofta, and Paneer Burji. Along with fiery foods, recipes for Modak and Anarse, satiated the sweet-toothed. Many also searched for comfort favourites like ‘Chicken soup’, ‘Pancake’, and Margherita Pizza, while also showing interest in popular drinks such Pornstar Martini and Sex on the beach.
