Google Year in Search: IPL, CoWIN, Neeraj Chopra top trends in India in 2021

Google Search in India 2021: As the year is coming to a close, search engine giant Google has shared its 2021 Year in Search report to show what Indians searched for the most this year. At the top of the overall list is of course India’s one true love – Cricket. ‘Indian Premier League’ and ‘ICC T20 World Cup’ were the most searched queries on Google in India this year.

Moreover, due to the massive vaccination drive being carried out, ‘CoWIN’ and ‘Covid Vaccine’ were high in the list of searches, Google said. In the overall trending list, the tech giant said that battle royale game Garena Free Fire was the only gaming query. It is important to note here that Google’s list does not directly translate to most searched queries, but rather queries that see a sustained spike in traffic during the year in consideration as compared to the previous year.

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Top trending queries on Google in 2021

The top five spots for searches in India this year were taken by ‘Indian Premier League’, ‘CoWIN’, ‘ICC T20 World Cup’, ‘Euro Cup’ as well as ‘Tokyo Olympics’, Google said, with searches related to COVID-19 hospitals and vaccines also ranking high. In the ‘near me’ searches, ‘oxygen cylinders’ and ‘CT scans’ saw an increase. Queries around delivery of food, tiffin services as well as takeout restaurants also surged on the search platform.

Google queries 2021: Trending ‘How to’ and ‘What is’ searches

Queries related to COVID-19 largely dominated the ‘How to’ and ‘What is’ categories of Google searches, with people actively searching how to register themselves for getting COVID-19 vaccination, how to download the vaccine certificate and how to increase their level of oxygen. These were the top three ‘How to’ searches in the country. Apart from this, what is Black Fungus and what is remdesivir were the top ‘What is’ searches India saw. However, the ‘What is’ category also saw what is Taliban and what is the factorial of hundred being among the top queries.

Top trending celebrities in India 2021

Neeraj Chopra, much like he did at the Tokyo Olympics Javelin event, grabbed the first spot as the most trending personality on Google in India this year. After Chopra was Aryan Khan, the son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, for being involved in an alleged drug case. Apart from this, tech mogul Elon Musk, and celebs like Vicky Kaushal, Shehnaaz Gill and Raj Kundra also grabbed a spot in the list.

Trending movies on Google 2021

As is often the case for Twitter, it was the regional cinema that outperformed every other film industry. Tamil film Jai Bhim grabbed the top spot in trending films in India this year, with Bollywood’s Shershaah, Radhe and Bell Bottom following. However, Hollywood films also managed to catch some attention, with Godzilla vs Kong and Eternals also featuring in the list.

Other trends in India in 2021

While ‘Enoki Mushrooms’, ‘Modak’ and ‘Cookies’ were among the top searched recipes in the country during the year, along with ‘Kada’ – the immunity-boosting home remedy, ‘Tokyo Olympics’ and ‘Copa America’ accompanies other top cricket-related queries to dominate trending sports in 2021. Tokyo Olympics also dominated the ‘news events’ section this year, along with ‘Black Fungus’, ‘Afghanistan News’, ‘West Bengal elections’, and ‘Cyclone Tauktae’.