Google 2020 Year in Search: Here’s what South Africans wanted to know [video]
South Africans tried to make sense of this tumultuous year by asking Google about the coronavirus, the US elections, unemployment grants and how and how to make pizza dough.
Did Trump triumph on Google Search, or did Joe Biden beat him to it? Did South Africans really love Jerusalema? Did banana bread rise to the top or did pineapple beer beat it out? Google reveals all.
Google on Wednesday, 9 December 2020 hosted its annual Year in Search event to show exactly what South Africans were searching for throughout the year.
2020: What a year it was
And what a tumultuous year it was. Other than finding ourselves in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, we were also struck by a barrage of news, leading to even more questions.
“It’s been a year of quarantines, nose invasions, and meetings-that-should-have-been-emails. Locked indoors with all their questions, what did South Africans want to know most?”
Google Year in Search
While the theme was overwhelmingly bleak for 2020 (from COVID-19 to unemployment and lockdown), there’s a bit of humour here too. We were curious about cornflakes and chainsaws and the origins of vanilla.
“What time is the President on tonight” became a mantra and Mars landed the sixth spot in Top Trending Travel Searches. Speaking of Mars, SpaceX ran into a snag with the rocket that will eventually take us to the red planet.