Year in Search 2021: This is what India Googled for most during the year – Times of India

New Delhi, December 08, 2021: Cricket continues to be India’s first love. The two waves of pandemic, including the devastating second wave, seems to have not changed the country’s love for the game. Cricket continued to top the charts this year, with the Indian Premier League (IPL) and ICC T20 World Cup filling the top spots in the overall list of queries as per Google India’s ‘Year in Search’ results for the year. Like every year, Google’s ‘Year in Search 2021‘ recaps the top search trends of the year in the country and across 70 other nations. According to Google, “The ‘Year in Search’ offers a unique perspective to the most trending moments in news, sports, entertainment, and the many ways people turned to Google Search, to ask the questions that helped people steady themselves in 2021.”
What India Google for in 2021?
While Cricket continued to top the charts this year, interest around football was center and forward, with the Euro Cup, and Copa America featuring on the list. Another high point of the year was the remarkable performance of the Indian sportspersons at the ‘Tokyo Olympics’. The commencement of the world’s largest vaccination drive in the world saw searches for COWIN and Covid Vaccine trending massively as people seeked information around the vaccinations options and their availability. Free Fire was the lone gaming entry that made it to the overall trending list, reflecting the massive popularity of the battle royale game.
Most-searched people
Neeraj Chopra arched to the apex of the personality list with his history-making performance at the Tokyo Olympics. Neeraj one first-ever Gold medal for India in athletics. He was followed by spiking interest in Aryan Khan, taking the second spot. Tesla founder and prolific social media personality Elon Musk’s also featured on the list, alongside page three celebrities such as Vicky Kaushal, Shehnaaz Gill and Raj Kundra.
Covid ruled ‘Near me’ searches
‘Near me’ searches this year were especially evocative of the year that was, with searches on Covid Vaccine, Covid tests, Covid hospital filling up the top slots. Searches for oxygen cylinders and CT scans also witnessed a spike as people fought the tide of the pandemic over the course of the year. In addition, queries on food deliveries, tiffin services and takeout restaurants also surged with people looking to ride out the intermittent lockdowns.
Regional cinema and Hollywood topped trends along with Bollywood
2021 also witnessed strong interest in regional cinema, paving the way for Jai Bhim, a Tamil blockbuster securing the top spot on the Movies list, followed by Bollywood blockbuster Shershaah. Radhe, and Bell Bottom were the other Hindi movies that surged on the trending charts. Highly anticipated Hollywood movies like Godzilla vs Kong and Eternals rounded up the list of the top trending movies of this year.
Both ‘what is’ and ‘how to’ showed Covid pains
While News around Covid-19 continued to take the spotlight, there continued to be interest around key global events and topics such as the Tokyo Olympics, Black Fungus, Afghanistan, and the West Bengal elections. People actively searched for important and relevant information with queries like how to register for Covid vaccine, how to download vaccine certification, and how to increase oxygen level being the top three ‘How to’ searches this year. In ‘What is’ category searches, the queries ranged from what is Black Fungus, what is Taliban, what is remdesivir, and to the evidently academic what is the factorial of hundred?