Tag Archives: Google Search

20 years of Year in Search

Twenty years ago, Google published its very first end-of-year list, called the Year-End Google Zeitgeist. Looking back, it’s clear how much some things have changed (please see the list of the top 10 MP3 music resources), and how much they stay the same (decades later and we’re still watching some of these sitcoms). 

Originally, these year-end lists evolved out of an internal project, eventually becoming the annual, public-facing report in 2001. “It's not a million miles away from what we do now,” says Google Data Trends editor Simon Rogers, looking back on that very first site. 

The original year-end collection wasn’t just created as a way for people to reflect on Search trends; it was also a way for people, including those who work in marketing or media, to find interesting stories and understand more about the events, people and moments of a certain year. 

These days, Year in Search is accompanied by a film that showcases the emotion behind the searches and trends of the year. “We also started finding a theme—this year it’s ‘why,’ which was at an all-time high in Google Trends history,” says Simon.  

Engineer Roni Rabin has been working on Year in Search for the past eight years and she’s seen it become increasingly sophisticated over time. “It’s always a really special moment once Year in Search launches and we see the world discovering the video and the lists.” 

And this year, there’s been plenty to discover. Simon calls 2020 a “dramatically interesting year for Search.” Past topics he remembers as significant for Search trends include weather events and the 2016 election—but nothing quite compares to the communal global interests of 2020. “These big, shared moments that affect everybody, they’re pretty rare,” he says. “And just to see so many crammed into such a short period of time, one year, is pretty unusual. I haven’t really seen anything like this.”

Related Article

2020: The year the world asked "why?"

A closer look at trending topics across searches, news, people, “how to’s,” and virtual activities from almost 70 countries.

Read Article

While Year in Search has changed over the years, there’s a hopefulness about the project that’s remained. “One of the things that makes me happy every year is how alike we are,” Simon explains. “Despite how different and divided we can be, this year especially, the data really showed how much we have in common.”

Source: Search


Our work on the 2020 U.S. election

It’s been over a month since polls closed in the U.S. 2020 election, and more Americans voted in this election than in any recent Presidential race. In the months—and years—leading up to this cycle, our teams worked hard to create tools that help voters find authoritative information about the election, educate campaigns on how to connect with voters and equip them with best-in-class security features, and protect our platforms from abuse. 


After Election Day, as votes were still being counted, we continued this work to show timely election results from The Associated Press (AP) on Google. We also enforced a Sensitive Events ads policy after polls closed, temporarily pausing more than 5 million ads referencing the U.S. 2020 election, the candidates, or its outcome as election results were certified. This week, we are lifting this pause and allowing advertisers to continue running election-related ads on our platforms, as long as they comply with our global advertising policies.

Record numbers of voters engaged with Google tools

We know that people turn to Google to look for information on a variety of topics, and the U.S. 2020 election would be no different. In fact, this U.S. election cycle saw all-time highs in searches for civics-related topics. We worked to create and launch features that would help people find the information they needed to participate in the democratic process. We introduced several features to help voters find information about how to register and how to vote in their states, and as the election neared, we also helped people find polling and ballot drop off locations. Across our products, these features were seen nearly 500 million times. 


We worked with non-partisan, third-party data partners, such as Democracy Works, which aggregates official data directly from state and county election administrators, and we linked to state government official websites for more information. Using this data, we also made it easy for people to quickly find nearby voting locations in Google Maps, along with information about how far they were, how to get there, and voting hours. From mid-October through Election Day, we added more than 125,000 voting locations in Google Maps. 


We also showed “how to register” and “how to vote” reminders to all our U.S. users directly on Google Search, Maps and YouTube, to help everyone across the country find the information they needed to register to vote, find their voting locations, and cast their ballots. These reminders were seen over 2 billion times across our products. And starting on Election Day, we worked with the AP to provide real-time election results for relevant searches on Google. This results feature had more than six times the number of views in 2020 as in 2016. Additionally, YouTube linked to this results feature in its election results information panel, which was shown over 4.5 billion times.

How we helped educate and protect campaigns

We also focused on helping campaigns and elected officials effectively use Google and YouTube products to reach voters and on helping them enhance their election security. As part of our Civics Outreach Virtual Training Series, Google held 21 training sessions for over 900 candidates, campaigns, public officials, and nonprofit leaders. Overall, we held 45 group and individual trainings to help more than 2,900 election workers learn to use Google tools to amplify their message and better connect with voters through events like digital town halls, debates and virtual campaign rallies.


And as a part of our Election Cybersecurity Initiative with the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School, nearly 4,000 elected officials, secretaries of state, campaign staffers, political party representatives, and state election directors in all 50 states received training on ways to secure their information and protect their campaigns against cyberattacks. At the start of the 2020 election season, we partnered with Defending Digital Campaigns (DDC) to give any federal campaign access to free security keys—the strongest form of two-factor authentication. We helped DDC distribute more than 10,500 Advanced Protection kits. Now, we continue to educate campaigns and newly elected officials about digital security and encourage them to enroll in our Advanced Protection Program.

Protecting our platforms from abuse

In the years leading up to the 2020 election, we made numerous enhancements to protect the integrity of elections around the world and better secure our platforms: we introduced strict policies and restrictions around who can run election-related advertising on our platform; we launched comprehensive political ad libraries in the U.S., the UK, the European Union, India, Israel and New Zealand; we developed and implemented policies to prohibit election-related abuse such as voter suppression and deceptive practices on platforms like YouTube, Google Ads, Google Maps and Google Play; our Threat Analysis Group (TAG) launched a quarterly bulletin to provide regular updates on our work to combat coordinated influence operations across our platforms and flagged phishing attempts against the presidential campaigns this summer; and we worked closely with government agencies, including the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, and others companies to share information around suspected election interference campaigns. 


And long before any voting in this election started, our global Trust and Safety teams were already working through possible threat scenarios and abuse vectors related to the election. These teams work in a variety of roles to help develop and enforce our policies in an apolitical and non-partisan way, monitor our platforms for abuse, and protect users from everything from account hijackings and disinformation campaigns to misleading content and inauthentic activity. We estimate that we spent at least $1 billion over the past year on content moderation systems and processes. We continue to invest aggressively in this area.


The job of protecting our platforms from abuse is always a top priority, but especially during sensitive times like elections. Our election integrity work may not directly drive Google’s business, but it’s a crucial part of our responsibility to our users and to the democratic process. That’s why our teams are already looking at what's coming up next—including 2021 elections in the U.S., the Netherlands, Japan, Israel, Ecuador and many other countries.

Source: Search


"How do I make sense of this?" – Year in Search 2020

December is always a special time. As we prepare to turn the page on the year gone by, it offers a great vantage point, for individuals, communities, countries, to look back and reflect -- to make sense of what we felt and did, the decisions we took, the changes we ushered in. And to us at Google, there is no better reflection of this than the questions that were asked the most in the year. 


But in a year unlike any other in living memory, a year that is, in many ways, a question in its own right, our queries become more than just cultural fascination. Each question we asked in 2020 was our attempt to steady ourselves as the ground beneath us shifted. 


This year, when people turned to Search, we realised they were counting on us to provide something they urgently needed -- a sense of knowledge, of certainty, of trust, more than any other time in our history. It’s a responsibility we took very seriously, as we worked with health authorities, medical experts and governments around the world, to bring people information that was reliable and of the minute, to provide handrails of certainty as the known world bucked and shifted. 


The top 10 overall list of trending search terms this year clearly reflected the global concern around the pandemic, with a natural surge in queries about Coronavirus. But interestingly, our fascination with cricket remained unchallenged as the Indian Premier League came out tops, trumping even the US elections. The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM Kisan Scheme) that extended monetary support to farmers also featured among the top searches. While netizens took a significant interest in the Bihar and Delhi elections, there was also a clear interest in understanding the shifting world-scape with searches on US President-elect Joe Biden emerging as one of the top trending personalities, along with TV journalist Arnab Goswami. On the entertainment front, late actor Sushant Singh Rajput's final cinematic outing Dil Bechara was the only movie this year to make it to the top 10 trending list.


In a year where most large-budget anticipated films released directly on digital media, the year saw mixed interest across movie genres, including action, drama, comedy and romance. Dil Bechara which also featured in the overall list, snagged the top spot for movies, followed by the Tamil action-drama Soorarai Pottru. Bollywood biopics like Tanhaji, Shakuntala Devi and Gunjan Saxena also made it to the list. Interestingly, Indian movies dominated the list, where the only international Hollywood movie to make it here was  Extraction.


Predictably, queries on web series surged during this year of lockdowns, with Money Heist topping this chart, followed by Indian entries like Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story, Bigg Boss 14, Mirzapur 2, and others.


US Presidential elections winner Joe Biden was the most searched personality this year, followed by TV journalist Arnab Goswami and Bollywood singer Kanika Kapoor. Others on the list included Rhea Chakraborty, Ankita Lokhande, Kangana Ranaut and others.


Indian Premier League, Coronavirus, and the US Presidential Elections dominated the general news queries, and rounding up the list was a mix of both local and global news moments such as the nationwide lockdowns, the Beirut explosion, bushfires in Australia, and locust swarms.


‘How to’ searches billowed this year with queries that reflected the global shift to working from home and dealing with the pandemic: ‘How to make paneer?’ and ‘How to increase immunity?’ made the top of the list, followed by the all-important ‘How to make dalgona coffee’. ‘What is’ queries included the now-iconic ‘What is binod?’, followed by many virus-related queries such as ‘What is plasma therapy?’, and ‘What is hantavirus?’. 


Following the unprecedented lockdown, local searches surged with 'Near me' queries. The top query was ‘Food shelters near me’ followed by ‘COVID test near me’. And pointing again to the trend of working from home, searches for ‘Broadband connection near me’ and ‘Laptop shop near me’ figured prominently this year.


View the complete 2020 India-specific lists and global trends in detail; and check out all the global top-ten lists across pop culture, sports, music, politics, news, from over 75 countries.

Spruce up your Business Profile for holiday shoppers

The holidays can be the most hectic—and the most important—time of the year for business owners. And this year shoppers are flocking to online shopping and curbside pickups. To make the most of this season and connect with shoppers wherever they are, we have a recipe for holiday success. Here’s a list you’ll want to check twice: 

1. Deck the halls of your Business Profile: First things first, claim your free Business Profile to put your best face forward on Google Maps and Search. Make sure your Business Profile is updated with helpful information about your store—like updated hours, a description and photos, shopping options, and all the safety measures you’re taking during the pandemic. Pro tip: Double check if your phone number is correct and turn on messaging so you can quickly connect with customers who have questions.

2. Share the gift of updated in-store inventory (online!): Unsurprisingly, 77 percent of holiday shoppers in the U.S. said they will browse for gift ideas online this year instead of in-store. Thanks to Pointy from Google, you can easily show your products online so shoppers can see what you carry before they head to the store to make a purchase. Pointy connects to your point-of-sale system and automatically adds your in-store products to your Business Profile on Google. This helps you to appear in search results when shoppers are looking for items you carry.

Pointy

Pointy from Google automatically adds your inventory to your Business Profile and can help shoppers find you when they search for items you carry

3. Help them order ahead, still tucked in their beds: Searches for “curbside pickup” have grown more than 3,000 percentglobally since last year. Let customers know how they can shop with you—whether you’re offering curbside pickup, in-store pickup or delivery options.

4. Oh, what fun it is to buy online for pickup and delivery:Add ordering link(s) for pickup or delivery to your profile. If you’re a verified retail merchant in the U.S., you can now add a link to your online store directly to your Business Profile on Google. This helps shoppers easily place a pickup or delivery order from you with a few simple taps!

Pickup and delivery

 If you’re a verified business in the U.S., you can add a link to your online store so customers can easily place pickup and delivery orders

5. 'Tis the season to share more about your business: Shoppers are looking to purchase from  local businesses that they feel good about supporting. Spruce up your Business Profile and connect with your community by showing whether you’re LGBTQ-friendly or women-led, or in the U.S. and identify as Black-owned or veteran-led.

Black-owned

Share more about your business by adding attributes to your Business Profile.

For more ways to deck out your Google presence, check out Grow with Google’s Quick Help YouTube videos. The short videos will help answer a variety of small business questions, from how to make the most of digital tools to how to start a live stream. We know the holiday season can be overwhelming, but with this checklist in hand there will be no need to get your tinsel in a tangle. 


Source: Search


Stop, drop and pass the rolls! Thanksgiving fun with Google

Thanksgiving is just a few days away, which can only mean the approach of a classic dinner table debate: stuffing or dressing? If your family is busy dishing out their hot food takes, they're hardly alone: Google searches for "stuffing vs dressing" in the U.S. spiked more than 350 percent this past week.

But let’s not forget about other Thanksgiving favorites. We took a look at uniquely searched side dishes in each state this year. It seems California is feeling just gravy, while Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky are ready to casse-roll. Check out what’s being searched in your state for some meal prep inspiration.

Thanksgiving Trends Map

Speaking of prep, taking charge of the Thanksgiving meal, even for small groups this year, is no easy feat. If you’re looking for some insider tips on how to make that perfect stuffing (or dressing!), search for “Thanksgiving” on Google to hear from expert chefs like Mary Ann Esposito  and Jess Pryles. They’ll answer some of your top questions and share some expert advice. You’ll feel like a top chef in no time.

Chef Cameo

If you need an extra hand finding recipes, staying on track in the kitchen  or figuring out ingredient substitutes, Google Assistant can help. Try asking, “Hey Google, give me Thanksgiving recipes,” for step-by-step guided instructions on Smart Displays, like Nest Hub Max. Here are a few other ways Assistant can help out in the kitchen:

  • Set a timer. You can already ask Google to set timers for help when your hands are full, but  new for this year, say  “Hey Google, set a turkey timer” for a visual and audio surprise on Assistant-enabled smart speakers and Smart Displays

  • Quickly convert measurements or figure out a substitute ingredient. Just ask, “Hey Google, how many tablespoons in a cup?” or “Hey Google, what’s a substitute for buttermilk?” 

  • Learn a new cooking technique. Try saying, “Hey Google, show me videos for how to roll pie dough” or “Hey Google, show me how to brown butter.”

  • Search for recipes based on specific dietary needs. Just say, "Hey Google, show me vegan stuffing recipes" or "Hey Google, show me gluten-free cornbread recipes."

But not everyone wants to commit to cooking on Thanksgiving; maybe this year takeout is more your style. You can use Google to order dinner—and now, once you’ve placed your order, Google Maps will show you the live status of when it’ll be ready for pickup or arrive at your doorstep…which could come in handy if you want to pretend you made it all yourself (we won’t tell). And even if you opt for take-out this Turkey Day, you can always up the game on your table scape with ideas from Google Images.

Whatever you decide on for dinner and whether you’re with family or sitting around the virtual table, there are still ways to connect with loved ones and make this year feel festive. Try recording a special moment with them and adding it to “The Great Thanksgiving Listen,” a StoryCorps campaign that encourages people across the country to contribute audio stories to a collective oral history. Google Cloud also recently partnered with StoryCorps to make its entire catalog of stories available and searchable for everyone, with help from AI.

As a fun bonus, search “Happy Thanksgiving” on Google for a hidden surprise. We figured it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without a slice of something sweet.

Source: Search


Say G’day to Aussie AR Animals

Australia is home to some of the most magnificent creatures in the animal kingdom: birds that laugh, duck-billed monotremes and marsupials that smile, hop and sleep for ~20 hours a day. They can’t be found in the wild anywhere else in the world. Until now. 

With AR on Google, you can meet eight life-sized Aussie animals up close and bring them into your backyard, living room, classroom—or take them on your adventures. Just search for koala, kangaroo, quokka, wombat, platypus, emu, kookaburra or echidna on your mobile browser (Android or iOS) or in the Google App and tap “View in 3D.”

YouTube video: Aussie AR Animals
10:25

You’ll be able to see their life-size scale, detail, movement—and even hear their sounds on Android devices (sounds are coming soon to iOS too). You’ll also be able to capture content of these Aussie icons.

Woman looking at a koala in AR

Our fascination with Aussie creatures, especially koalas, has been on the rise this year. During Australia’s devastating bushfires—which endangered thousands of koalas—search interest for koalas hit an all-time high globally in January and we even worried they may be extinct (thankfully, we can confirm they aren’t). 


Here’s a list of the top worldwide trending questions this year so far for the Aussie AR animals you’ll now get to meet in Search: 


  1. Are koalas extinct 2020?

  2. What does a baby platypus look like?

  3. Can an emu fly?

  4. How many koalas have died?

  5. How big are wombats?

  6. Are koalas friendly?

  7. How do koalas drink water?

  8. What does the inside of a kangaroo pouch look like?

  9. Can koalas be pets?

  10. How are baby kangaroos born?


While most of us can’t travel to the Aussie outback right now, you can learn about these animals from the comfort of your couch or picnic rug.  Search for these Aussie AR animals on your mobile or tablet today so you can paddle with a platypus, cackle with a kookaburra and meet your new mARsupial mates!

Source: Search


Say G’day to Aussie AR Animals

Australia is home to some of the most magnificent creatures in the animal kingdom: birds that laugh, duck-billed monotremes and marsupials that smile, hop and sleep for ~20 hours a day. They can’t be found in the wild anywhere else in the world. Until now. 

With AR on Google, you can meet eight life-sized Aussie animals up close and bring them into your backyard, living room, classroom—or take them on your adventures. Just search for koala, kangaroo, quokka, wombat, platypus, emu, kookaburra or echidna on your mobile browser (Android or iOS) or in the Google App and tap “View in 3D.”

YouTube video: Aussie AR Animals
10:25

You’ll be able to see their life-size scale, detail, movement—and even hear their sounds on Android devices (sounds are coming soon to iOS too). You’ll also be able to capture content of these Aussie icons.

Woman looking at a koala in AR

Our fascination with Aussie creatures, especially koalas, has been on the rise this year. During Australia’s devastating bushfires—which endangered thousands of koalas—search interest for koalas hit an all-time high globally in January and we even worried they may be extinct (thankfully, we can confirm they aren’t). 


Here’s a list of the top worldwide trending questions this year so far for the Aussie AR animals you’ll now get to meet in Search: 


  1. Are koalas extinct 2020?

  2. What does a baby platypus look like?

  3. Can an emu fly?

  4. How many koalas have died?

  5. How big are wombats?

  6. Are koalas friendly?

  7. How do koalas drink water?

  8. What does the inside of a kangaroo pouch look like?

  9. Can koalas be pets?

  10. How are baby kangaroos born?


While most of us can’t travel to the Aussie outback right now, you can learn about these animals from the comfort of your couch or picnic rug.  Search for these Aussie AR animals on your mobile or tablet today so you can paddle with a platypus, cackle with a kookaburra and meet your new mARsupial mates!

Source: Search


Say G’day to Aussie AR Animals

Australia is home to some of the most magnificent creatures in the animal kingdom: birds that laugh, duck-billed monotremes and marsupials that smile, hop and sleep for ~20 hours a day. They can’t be found in the wild anywhere else in the world. Until now. 

With AR on Google, you can meet eight life-sized Aussie animals up close and bring them into your backyard, living room, classroom—or take them on your adventures. Just search for koala, kangaroo, quokka, wombat, platypus, emu, kookaburra or echidna on your mobile browser (Android or iOS) or in the Google App and tap “View in 3D.”

YouTube video: Aussie AR Animals
10:25

You’ll be able to see their life-size scale, detail, movement—and even hear their sounds on Android devices (sounds are coming soon to iOS too). You’ll also be able to capture content of these Aussie icons.

Woman looking at a koala in AR

Our fascination with Aussie creatures, especially koalas, has been on the rise this year. During Australia’s devastating bushfires—which endangered thousands of koalas—search interest for koalas hit an all-time high globally in January and we even worried they may be extinct (thankfully, we can confirm they aren’t). 


Here’s a list of the top worldwide trending questions this year so far for the Aussie AR animals you’ll now get to meet in Search: 


  1. Are koalas extinct 2020?

  2. What does a baby platypus look like?

  3. Can an emu fly?

  4. How many koalas have died?

  5. How big are wombats?

  6. Are koalas friendly?

  7. How do koalas drink water?

  8. What does the inside of a kangaroo pouch look like?

  9. Can koalas be pets?

  10. How are baby kangaroos born?


While most of us can’t travel to the Aussie outback right now, you can learn about these animals from the comfort of your couch or picnic rug.  Search for these Aussie AR animals on your mobile or tablet today so you can paddle with a platypus, cackle with a kookaburra and meet your new mARsupial mates!

Source: Search


Visual ways to search and understand our world

Whether you’re a student learning about photosynthesis or a parent researching the best cars for your growing family, people turn to Google with all sorts of curiosities. And we can help you understand in different ways—through text, your voice or even your phone’s camera. Today, as part of the SearchOn event, we’re announcing new ways you can use Google Lens and augmented reality (AR) while learning and shopping.

Visual tools to help you learn 

For many families, adjusting to remote learning hasn’t been easy, but tools like Google Lens can help lighten the load. With Lens, you can search what you see using your camera. Lens can now recognize 15 billion things—up from 1 billion just two years ago—to help you identify plants, animals, landmarks and more. If you’re learning a new language, Lens can also translate more than 100 languages, such as Spanish and Arabic, and you can tap to hear words and sentences pronounced out loud. 


If you’re a parent, your kids may ask you questions about things you never thought you’d need to remember, like quadratic equations. From the search bar in the Google app on Android and iOS, you can use Lens to get help on a homework problem. With step-by-step guides and videos, you can learn and understand the foundational concepts to solve math, chemistry, biology and physics problems.

Lens Homework

Sometimes, seeing is understanding. For instance, visualizing the inner workings of a plant cell or the elements in the periodic table in 3D is more helpful than reading about them in a textbook. AR brings hands-on learning home, letting you explore concepts up close in your space. Here’s how Melissa Brophy-Plasencio, an educator from Texas, is incorporating AR into her lesson plans.

Melissa Brophy-Plasencio, an educator from Texas, shares how she's using AR into her science lessons.

Shop what you see with Google Lens 

Another area where the camera can be helpful is shopping—especially when what you’re looking for is hard to describe in words. With Lens, you can already search for a product by taking a photo or screenshot. Now, we’re making it even easier to discover new products as you browse online on your phone. When you tap and hold an image on the Google app or Chrome on Android, Lens will find the exact or similar items, and suggest ways to style it. This feature is coming soon to the Google app on iOS.

Lens Shopping

Lens uses Style Engine technology which combines the world’s largest database of products with millions of style images. Then, it pattern matches to understand concepts like “ruffle sleeves” or “vintage denim” and how they pair with different apparel. 

Bring the showroom to you with AR

When you can’t go into stores to check out a product up close, AR can bring the showroom to you. If you’re in the market for a new car, for example, you’ll soon be able to search for it on Google and see an AR model right in front of you. You can easily check out what the car looks like in different colors, zoom in to see intricate details like buttons on the dashboard, view it against beautiful backdrops and even see it in your driveway. We’re experimenting with this feature in the U.S. and working with top auto brands, such as Volvo and Porsche, to bring these experiences to you soon.

ColorSwaps_Volvo_560_sq.gif

AR experience of the 2020 Volvo XC40 Recharge

Everyone’s journey to understand is different. Whether you snap a photo with Lens or immerse yourself in AR, we hope you find what you’re looking for...

Ladybug.gif

...and even have some fun along the way.

Source: Search