Year in Search: Interest in Vaccination peaks even as Cricket continues to captivate

Google India today announced its ‘Year in Search’ results, recapping the top search trends of 2021 in India. 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.

Cricket continued to top the charts this year, with the Indian Premier League and ICC T20 World Cup filling the top spots in the overall list of queries. Interest around football was centre 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.

Neeraj Chopra arched to the apex of the personality list with his history-making performance at the Tokyo Olympics – Independent India’s first-ever medal 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.

‘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.

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.

Queries in the Recipes category proved to be a buffet of terms, with Enoki Mushrooms topping the trend cake. It was an intriguing spectrum of culinary-spanning interests, from the racy Porn Star Martini to an all-time favourite, Lasagna. Recipes for Modak and Cookies added a sweet taste alongside homely staples like ‘Methi Matar Malai’ and ‘Palak’.  Kada, the hot favourite immunity-boosting home remedy, also featured among the top recipes. 

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 the 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?