Brahmastra, IPL, Russia-Ukraine war and more: What India searched for on Google in 2022 – Times of India

If 2021 saw people taking their first guarded steps into a post-pandemic era, 2022 marked the year we bounced back stronger in many ways. In this journey, Search helped people find a world of information – be it questions on everyday interests, new passions, or more intricate topics. As the year comes to a close, Google India has announced the ‘Year in Search 2022’ results, looking back at the moments that captivated India’s interest in 2022 across a broad range of topics.
In 2022, India recorded all-time high search moments in cricket and football, celebrated diversity in film and sport, rediscovered fun experiences in the outside world, while also asking questions about global and local news events, emerging concepts in tech and finance, and helpful government schemes. People leaned into their love for sport and entertainment like never before with our ambitious films, mesmerizing songs, and engaging matches shaping global trends this year. While we came together to celebrate glorious occasions such as India’s 75th year of Independence, we also sadly bid farewell to many legendary personalities. Here is India’s Year in Search 2022 recap.
Cricket continues to rule Indian hearts
India’s passion for sport reached new heights this year in Search. Indian Premier League (IPL) led the pack of trending searches in India, while queries for the T20 World Cup and Asia Cup reached an all-time high. Not just on home turf, India also dominated sports trends worldwide, securing all top 5 slots in the global trending matches list. Football saw similar excitement, with searches for the ongoing FIFA World Cup as well peaking this year and making it to the trending searches of the year, along with the Indian Super League.
On the sporting events list, women’s sports moments also shone brightly – besides marking many firsts at the Commonwealth Games, including the historic win by the Indian women’s lawn bowls team that emerged as one of the top queries around this moment – the Women’s Cricket World Cup marked its debut on the top trending searches for sporting events. Kabaddi and Tennis rounded up the trending sports events list with Pro Kabaddi League, Australian Open, and Wimbledon.
Trending ‘Near me’ queries showed people stepping out to explore many of their interests across entertainment, health, wellness, and more. Terms such as “Swimming pool near me”, “Water park near me”, “Malls near me” featured in the list. People also searched for Covid-19 and Polio vaccinations near them.
Search for movies go beyond Bollywood
Unlike last year, theatrical releases took a lead in 2022 with popular films across languages, including pan-India films, dominating the list. Hindi film Brahmastra: Part One – Shiva and Kannada film KGF: Chapter 2 secured top spots in overall trending searches and trending movie searches; the films also made it to the top global trending movie searches. Trending movies in India included Hindi films The Kashmir Files, Laal Singh Chaddha, and Drishyam 2, Telugu films RRR and Pushpa: The Rise, Tamil film Vikram, Kannada film Kantara, with the lone English film in the list being Thor: Love and Thunder.
Indian songs too got people humming across the world, with Chaand Baaliyan and Srivalli making it to the top songs people hummed to search globally.
‘What is’ goes diverse — from e-SHRAM card to NFT and more
People also searched for helpful government schemes. e-SHRAM card – a government scheme to support unorganized workers with social security benefits – made it to the trending searches and ‘how to’ queries list. Agneepath scheme – a newly launched government scheme to recruit youth in the Indian army – led the ‘what is’ search queries. Other ‘what is’ queries on Search displayed people’s interests in a diverse range of topics across news (NATO, PFI, Article 370), finance (NFT), technology (metaverse), and health (myositis).
‘How to’ trending queries showed people actively searching for important information around vaccinations, government documents, income tax filing, pregnancy, and more. Guessing five-letter words every day interested people as well, with people keen to know how to play “wordle”.
News mix of local and global
People in India showed interest in a diverse range of global and local personalities that were in the news including politicians Nupur Sharma, Droupadi Murmu, Rishi Sunak, entertainment personalities Sushmita Sen, Abdu Rozik, and Amber Heard, and sports star Pravin Tambe.
News events were headlined by the saddened losses of renowned personalities across the world, including India’s nightingale Lata Mangeshkar, cricketer Shane Warne, Queen Elizabeth, and artists Sidhu Moose Wala, KK, and Bapppi Lahiri. While people showed keen interest in developments on the Russia-Ukraine war and UP elections closer to home, we also celebrated a special moment with India’s 75th year of Independence that found a spot in this category with ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’.
Desi remains sought-after for recipes
‘Recipe’ queries presented a multi-cuisine array of delicious dishes. Indian flavours remained a favourite with dishes such as ‘Paneer Pasanda’, ‘Malai Kofta’, and ‘Paneer Burji’. Along with fiery foods, recipes for ‘Modak’ and ‘Anarse’, satiated the sweet toothed. Many also searched for comfort favourites like ‘Chicken soup’, ‘Pancake’, ‘Margherita Pizza’, while also showing interest in popular drinks ‘Pornstar Martini’ and ‘Sex on the beach’.