Google’s Top Trending Searches of 2020 in Canada Include Coronavirus, Tiger King, and Toronto Raptors

Google Canada has released its top trending searches of 2020 in Canada. The extensive roundup of trending searches includes everything from general queries to entertainment, sports, memes, and more. Canada’s top trending searches sum up the year 2020 with searches like “Coronavirus”, “US election”, and “Why are people buying toilet paper?” trending high on the list.

It’s important to recognize that the list is not comprised of top searches or most searched items. Google Canada has stated that the list includes “searches that had a high spike in traffic over a sustained period in 2020, as compared to 2019.” This is reflected quite plainly in the general searches category where “US election”, “Coronavirus”, “Zoom” are amongst the top. In Canadian news, “Coronavirus” once again made the list alongside “CERB”, and “Air Canada Stock”. News topics surrounding racial injustice like “Blackout Tuesday” and “Black Lives Matter” were also high on the list.

As for sports, Google Canada has broken down NBA and NHL teams, which include the Toronto Raptors, Los Angeles Lakers,  Toronto Maple Leafs, and Montréal Canadiens. As for athletes, Ryan Newman, Jay Bouwmeester, and Bubba Wallace were the top three trending searches.

Looking into entertainment, the top three trending searches as far as movies go included Parasite, Contagion, and Black Panther. The trending searches for TV shows showed Netflix dominating with Tiger King, The Queen’s Gambit, Ozark, and Cobra Kai in the mix. Tiger King and Joe Exotic made another list in Google Canada’s top trending searches, but for trending memes. Other top trending meme searches included Baby Yoda, 2020, and Among Us.

The list of top trending searches was a stark reminder of how awful this year has been for many. When looking at trending search questions, queries like “Why was George Floyd stopped?” and “How to apply for EI” were high on the lists. While COVID-19 related questions also made the list, there were some more humorous ones in there as well. “What does WAP mean?”, a question I’m sure many people had this year was amongst the list.

2020 saw the loss of many talented individuals including Kobe Bryant, Naya Rivera, Alex Trebek, and Chadwick Boseman, all of whom were amongst top trending searches as well.

In the year that simultaneously feels like it’s taken a week and a decade to get through, it’s interesting to look back. There’s been quite a lot that’s happened and reflecting on the trending searches has been insightful.