From banana bread to Bloomfield and Benee, this year’s top trending searches show what puzzled, intrigued and entertained us this year. 

People come to Google Search for help in moments big and small billions of times a day - whether it’s to ask what is matariki, to find the lyrics to Kiwi Jawsh685’s Savage Love or understand antifa. Which is why, for the past 20 years, Google’s annual Year in Search moment has provided a window into the cultural zeitgeist. 

So let’s take this moment is a time for reflection, and look at some of the themes that defined 2020 for Kiwis:

Staying home and figuring it out

As Alert Levels and Dr Ashley Bloomfield became part of our everyday vernacular, we quickly became adjusted to the new language of a pandemic, in understanding lockdown restrictions and how best to protect ourselves. We made face masks and hand sanitizer, and as we stayed home and faced job uncertainty, we looked to Work and Income for support. We relied on the Ministry of Health as knowledge became power in understanding the pandemic. We also discovered new ways to continue to work and learn online, through productivity and learning tools like Zoom, Seesaw and Education Perfect. 

Culinary curiosity, but make it simple

Kiwis searched for “easy recipes” more than most other countries in March, reflecting either a newfound vigour or fear for the home cooking adventure of lockdown. Putting all the flour to good use, baked goods were king - hot cross buns, scones and pancakes all popular options. Naan and butter chicken were the more interesting savoury fare. Perhaps showing the limited runs to the supermarket, we also wanted to know how to make buttermilk and self raising flour. Chelsea Winter was an inspiration as was a plant based diet. And to counter earlier indulgences we wanted to know how to lose weight...fast.

Kiwis supporting Kiwis

In a year when many businesses faced tough times, Kiwis searched for "shop local" and "small business"  more than we have for a decade. We showed greater interest in the economic market with NZX50 and Sharesies both trending. Homegrown talent piqued our interest as they made their mark overseas; Taika Waititi kept us entertained (at home) during lockdowns, Benee performed on a global stage, and Israel Adesanya, appearing on the trending Kiwis list for the second year in a row, showed his prowess in MMA fighting internationally. And in true Kiwi style, sporting heroes Lydio Ko, Ross Taylor and Dan Carter broke through.

Politically Engaged

Once we figured out how to vote, Kiwis showed their civic engagement with strong interest in our local election and the political figures who defined our election race. We were also following events happening worldwide closely, with international politicians making up half of the public figures on New Zealand’s list of trending international faces, and ‘US Election Results’ making it to second place of the Overall Trending Searches list. 

More than ever, New Zealand’s top trending searches reflect a year of seeking new information, understanding and awareness of the world around us. 

Overall Trending Searches:

1. Coronavirus 

2. US Election Results 

3. Zoom

4. SeeSaw

5. Kobe Bryant 

6. Ministry of Health 

7. Education Perfect 

8. Work and Income

9. Naya Rivera 

10. Sharesies 

News Events:

1. Coronavirus 

2. US Election Results 

3. Australia fires 

4. Election Results NZ 

5. Nzx50 

6. Iran 

7. Italy Coronavirus 

8. Beirut 

9. Level 2

10. Iowa Caucus 

Kiwi Celebs:

1. Hayley Holt 

2. Israel Adesanya

3. Ashley Bloomfield

4. Lydia Ko

5. David Bain 

6. Taika Waititi

7. Chelsea Winter

8. Benee 

9. Dan Carter 

10. Ross Taylor 

Global Figures:

1. Kim Jong Un

2. Donald Trump 

3. Boris Johnson

4. Joe Biden 

5. Tom Hanks 

6. Elon Musk 

7. Joe Exotic 

8. Kamala Harris

9. Carole Baskin

10. Kanye West  

New Zealand Politicians:

1. Todd Muller

2. Jacinda Ardern 

3. Judith Collins

4. Simon Bridges 

5. Chloe Swarbrick 

6. David Clark 

7. Andrew Falloon

8. David Seymour 

9. Winston Peters 

How To:

1. How to make a face mask? 

2. How to make hand sanitizer?

3. How to vote NZ?

4. How to lose weight fast? 

5. How to make buttermilk? 

6. How to make pancakes? 

7. How to make self raising flour? 

8. How to make naan bread? 

9. How to make bread? 

10. How to use Zoom? 

What is:

1. What is Coronavirus? 

2. What is the name of the Kingdom in Tangled? 

3. What is Level 2? 

4. What is a pandemic? 

5. What is Matariki? 

6. What is the time? 

7. What is a simp? 

8. What is buttermilk? 

9. What is 5g? 

10. What is antifa? 

Loss:

1. Kobe Bryant 

2. George Floyd 

3. Chadwick Boseman 

4. Caroline Flack 

5. Sushant Singh Rajpu 

6. Kenny Rogers

7. Kelly Preston 

8. Eddie Van Halen 

9. Sean Connery

10. Rishi Kapoor  

Recipe:

1. Hot cross bun

2. Scone

3. Banana bread

4. Bread

5. Naan bread

6. Banana cake

7. Carrot cake

8. Butter chicken

9. Ciabatta

10. Pancake

Sporting Events:

1. India vs New Zealand

2. All Blacks vs Australia

3. NRL

4. EPL

5. Champions League

6. Premier League

7. IPL

8. Australia Open 2020

9. Super Rugby 2020

10. Mitre 10 Cup

The impact of the COVID-related health crisis is not difficult to see. Every aspect of society has been affected in some way, whether its education, the economy or the way whānau can come together. That’s why in times like this, when marginalised communities are being most adversely affected, organisations like InsideOUT are so important. As a national charity that works to give rainbow or LGBTQIA+ youths in Aotearoa a sense of safety and belonging in their schools and communities, InsideOUT’s mission never stops.

Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, previously announced a global effort to support over 70 organisations around the world to help the LGBTQ+ community impacted by COVID-19, including InsideOUT. New Zealand’s recipient of this support, InsideOUT, will be able to initiate a series of programmes that would not have been possible without this additional grant.

Designed in collaboration with takatāpui, indigenous rainbow young people, their project aims to increase understanding and awareness of takatāpui identities, support wellbeing of takatāpui young people across Aotearoa, and increase the capacity of organisations and communities to understand and support them. 

This will be done through the following initiatives:

• A Takatāpui Youth Advisory Group of takatāpui young people will be formed to advise on this work and support its direction from initiation to completion.
  
  

• A Takatāpui Awareness Campaign with posters and social media to share affirming video stories for and by Māori rainbow young people. This will combat the challenge of rainbow Maori youth not feeling connected to either their culture or other rainbow communities. Aiming to connect them with resources and information to validate their sense of identity.

• Creation of a Takatāpui Video Resource with a short film telling the history of takatāpui and sharing intergenerational stories and perspectives on this identity. Working in close partnership with Dr Elizabeth Kerekere, a takatāpui academic and activist, and Tīwhanawhana Trust, this will assist Māori youth and social service organisations to better understand and respect takatāpui young people, and for rainbow organisations and school Queer Straight Alliances to better understand and include Māori young people. 

• Work with Kura Kaupapa (Māori-medium schools) to support them to make their school environment more inclusive of and for takatāpui, including gender diverse students by developing resources in te reo Māori to support Kura Kaupapa across Aotearoa to upskill staff. 
  
  

• Te Ao Māori Training Workshops on Te Ao Māori (the Māori world), which will include learning about language pronunciation and concepts to help takatāpui young people connect further with their culture, and help non-Māori young people learn more about Māori culture and feel more confident using te reo Māori.
  
  

• Te Tiriti o Waitangi Training Programme for InsideOUT’s Board and staff to further increase understanding and awareness for Māori cultural competency to embed this understanding further into strategy and day-to-day work. 

The programme will commence and run through 2021, in partnership with other relevant organisations and Kura Kaupapa, Māori-medium schools.

More about InsideOUT

InsideOUT are here to support young people with gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, genderqueer, genderfluid, asexual, aromantic, takatāpui, whakawahine, tangata ira tane, fa’afafine, mahu, vakasalewalewa, palopa, akava’ine, fakaleiti,fiafifine and fakafifine identities as well as everyone in between, not sure or who prefers a different label or even none at all!

A national charity providing resources, information, workshops, consulting and support for anything concerning rainbow or LGBTQIA+ issues and education for schools, workplaces and community organisations

We know that keeping you safe online means continuously protecting the security and privacy of your information. That’s why protections are automatically built into your Google Account and every Google product. Safe Browsing protects more than 4 billion devices, Gmail blocks more than 100 million phishing attempts every day, and Google Play Protect scans over 50 billion apps every day for malware and other issues.

This month, Aotearoa’s Scams Awareness Week 2020 aims to increase the cyber resilience of Kiwis, and at Google, we see the safety of our products as driven by three core principles: keeping your information secure, treating it responsibly and putting you in control. We’re continuously putting these principles into practice, and wanted to share our newest security and privacy protections. 

Proactively protecting you with high-visibility security alerts

When your security is at risk, time is of the essence. We work to make it easy for you to act fast if we ever detect a serious risk to their Google Accounts. Over the years, we’ve developed new ways to notify people about these issues and helped significantly improve their security. In 2015 for example, we started using Android alerts to notify people about critical issues with their Google Accounts, like a suspected hack. Following this change, we saw a 20-fold increase in the number of people that engaged with these new notifications within an hour of receiving them, compared to email.

Soon, we'll be introducing a redesigned critical alert and a new way of delivering it. When we detect any serious Google Account security issue, we’ll automatically display an alert within the Google app you’re using and help you address it—no need to check email or your phone’s alerts. The new alerts are resistant to spoofing, so you can always be sure they're coming from us.  We’ll begin a limited roll out in the coming weeks and plan to expand more broadly early next year.

Following the announcement of Nest Mini, Google continues its hardware roll out with the release of Nest Wifi. Homes weren’t built for Wi-Fi, so when we introduced Google Wifi in 2016, we built it to work for anyone, in any home. With Nest Wifi, we’re taking everything Kiwi’s love about Google Wifi and making it even better, a powerful router that provides Kiwi homes with strong, reliable Wi-Fi.  And, you can add additional routers to create a mesh network (and only one needs to be hardwired to the modem) if you need more coverage.

Keep it all connected

The Nest Wifi router plugs directly into your modem, forming the basis for a strong and powerful home network. Nest Wifi is more powerful than Google Wifi, delivering up to two times the speed and up to 25 percent better coverage. And if you’ve already got a Google Wifi network, you can easily add Nest Wifi to it for additional coverage.

Simple setup and control in the Google Home App

Setting up Nest Wifi is easy. Plug it in and download and open the Google Home app, which will guide you through setup in minutes. Once you’re set up, you can manage your network in the app alongside your other supported connected devices.

The app makes it easy to share your Wi-Fi password with guests, prioritise devices (like when you’re on a video call), test the speed of your network, set up a guest network or change your password. 

You can also manage separate homes in the app. I’m the tech expert in my family, so I also manage my parents’ network. This way, when I get a call that the Wi-Fi isn’t working, I can quickly check what’s wrong or let them know if they need to call their internet provider. 

My sons are in high school, so while I want them to go offline at certain times during the week, I don’t mind if they stay up later on weekends, playing video games or streaming their favourite shows. With Family Wi-Fi features in the Google Home app, I can easily set my sons’ devices on a Wi-Fi schedule, pause the Wi-Fi to their devices at any time and block adult content on their devices. 

Designed for your home 

Many routers are hidden in a closet or cabinet, where the signal is blocked and can be reduced. Nest Wifi has a beautiful design with soft, rounded edges and unobtrusive lighting. It’s meant to be placed out in the open, where it’ll perform at its best and will naturally blend into your home.

Nest Wifi is built using sustainable materials. The enclosure is made from 45 percent post-consumer recycled plastic.
 

Peace of mind

With Nest Wifi, you’ll also never have to worry about whether or not your router is up to date. We automatically push security and performance updates to your Nest Wifi devices, to help keep your network safe and working at its best. Nest Wifi has been designed with your privacy in mind and per our privacy commitments. 

Nest Wifi will be available for sale in New Zealand from 14 October 2020. You can get a Nest Wifi router for RRP NZD $299 at Noel Leeming, JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, PB Tech and more retailers in the coming months. From late October, Orcon will provide a Nest Wifi to new customers without a homeline, at no additional cost.

“Orcon customers are always looking for the best, the fastest, and the highest performing technology. Nest Wifi ticks all the boxes. Customer Satisfaction scores of Orcon customers using Google Wifi are markedly higher than those without a mesh solution, and with the latest and greatest Google Mesh solution in Nest Wifi, we expect even higher satisfaction scores.” said Taryn Hamilton, Chief Executive of Orcon.

We’ve heard from parents that it’s difficult to dig through all the content that's out there for kids. Today, we’re making it easier for parents to find the good stuff, with a new Kids tab on Google Play filled with “Teacher approved” apps that are both enriching and entertaining. 

“Teacher approved” kid-friendly app content 

Great content for kids can take many forms: Does it spark curiosity? Does it help your child learn? Is it just plain fun? To share the best apps for kids on the Play Store, we've teamed up with academic experts and teachers, including our lead advisors, Joe Blatt (Harvard Graduate School of Education) and Dr. Sandra Calvert (Georgetown University). Apps that have been rated by teachers and meet our quality standards receive a "Teacher approved" badge.