2020 is almost over, and the world has seen more than enough.
From the COVID-19 pandemic, protests, wildfires, the U.S. Presidential Election, Kobe Bryant's death, George Floyd's death, video fames like The Last of Us Part II and Among Us, work-from-home activities, lockdown, and many many more.
In the chaotic year, an increasing number of people turned to Google for answers.
With the availability of connectivity and devices in people's hands/reach, Google that is the largest search engine there is on the web, has answers that are only a few taps/clicks away.
And here, Google has released its 'Year in Search', its annual snapshot of the year's most important search terms, news stories, entertainers and politicians.
In this Year in Search 2020, Google has aggregated trillions of queries, and created a long list of "trending" categories in multiple languages the company said most defined the year.
"One thing that has been incredible to see in the data is the unprecedented shifts in people's information needs," said Google's data editor, Simon Rogers.
"We worked with partners at the international, national and even local levels to connect people with the critical info."
There were also other atypical trends this 2020, Rogers added.
And the most interesting topics reflected how people adjusted to "a new normal."
For example, there are queries about "Dalgona coffee," a popular comfort-food trend on social network TikTok, and "banana bread recipes" which also hit an all-time high.
Besides searching for the most comforting recipes, people also searched for "fires near me" and "earthquake near me", as the two were also the top trending local queries this 2020 in several places.
People also searched Google into how to donate blood, plasma and N95 masks, among other things, during the health crisis. And of course, as the crisis continues, people also looked for "drive in movie theater near me," "how to cut men's hair at home", "how to make a mask" and "how to make hand sanitizer."
Among others, queries for "virtual museums", "support small business", the mask emoji, learn how to code and become a YouTuber, and thanking healthcare workers are ranking higher up than ever before.
In Indonesia, the Southeast Asian archipelago country that is hit hard by the coronavirus, its citizens have sought to get around while getting some exercise.
And according to Google on the Year in Search 2020 stories recap, searching for bicycle is twice as much in 2020 compared to 2019.
Indonesians also sought to bring a little of the outside inside this year. Search interest in plants doubled in 2020 compared to 2019.
2020 marks Google's 20th anniversary of its Year in Search.
When the list was first launched, it only had one simple webpage with a few subcategories. At that time, terms like "Osama bin Laden" and "Eminem" were among the top queries.
Google's Year in Search is more like a crystal ball. But instead of looking forward to the future, it's looking back what had been through in the past year.
Year in Search reports exactly which searches were trending in each country. With Year in Search 2020, Google is giving the world a snapshot of what was on people's mind this year.
