Google searches 2022: war, Covid, presidential election – Austria –
In 2022, the Ukraine war dominated the Google searches of users from Austria. “The pandemic is still an important topic and was still the most popular topic after ‘Ukraine’. The World Cup in Qatar also made it onto the podium, not least because it is a very controversial topic,” said Wolfgang Fasching-Kapfenberger , spokesman for Google Austria, at the presentation of the domestic Google annual review.
Other topics of interest were the presidential election, referendums, major sporting events, the solar eclipse, the split between the German social media personalities Bibi and Julian and the question “How old is Putin?”. Some prominent personalities had to be said goodbye, here the news about the death of Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz and Queen Elizabeth II in Austria moved the most.
The top 10 search terms of the year in Austria were “Ukraine”, “Corona vaccination near me”, “WM”, “Olympia”, Dominic Thiem”, “Federal Presidential Election”, “Monkeypox”, “Vladimir Putin”, “Russia” and “climate change”. Snowboard Olympic champion Anna Gasser landed on the second place behind tennis star Thiem among the much sought-after local celebrities.
One trend was inquiries about climate, environment and energy, the most frequent searches here concerned “climate change”, “climate bonus”, “fuel price calculator”, “Wien Energie” and “EVN”. “Energy cost equalization” and “electricity price brake” came in ninth and tenth.
Covid-19 remained an important topic, but in contrast to 2021, the term “corona” no longer followed the list, pollution was looked for after vaccination. In the first five places are “Corona vaccination in my area”, “Valneva share”, “Green passport” and “Omicron symptoms”.
Among the news items, the presidential election saw the biggest spike in searches, the Google Austria spokesman reported. In addition to “Cold Progression” and “Ragweed”, “People’s Petition” also made it to the top.
The top 10 international people in 2022 were a colorful mix of personalities from politics, sport and culture. At the top is Russian President Vladimir Putin, followed by tennis ace Novak Djokovic and Hollywood ex-couple Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. The Oscar night scandal slap is represented by searches for Will Smith and Chris Rock.
“How-questions” are a separate category, “How long is a PCR test valid?” before “How old is Putin?” and “How long is recovered?” Corona is also at the top of the “what questions”: “Corona positive – what to do?” ended up before “What is NATO?” and the climate bonus, mainly because users had not yet received it.
A “Best of” was presented from all the questions asked, including the “Why am I so tired?” question that was often asked in the morning. Many people also wanted to know where the Leaning Tower of Pisa is and why they don’t get Corona. “Why were fake lashes invented?” also made it into the ranking.
Google compiles Year in Search trends based on more than a billion searches processed each year. All of the categories presented contain the “most trending searches” in Austria, i.e. those search terms that have increased the most compared to the previous year.