Written by Connor Zahler:
It’s the start of a new year, which means that it’s list season. Everywhere you look, people are compiling the best and worst people, things, and ideas of 2022 to gear up for 2023. You’ve probably already seen all of your friends’ Spotify Wrappeds and made the appropriate judgments about them. Wrapped, though, is a look at an individual’s year; is there any way we take a broader, more analytical look?
As with many rhetorical questions, the answer is yes. Google Trends are used throughout the year by advertisers and other interested parties to keep their finger on the pulse of what people care about. At the end of each year, they publish a retrospective about the topics that trended the most this past year. Let’s dive into Google’s “Year in Search” together and see what we can learn.
Global Trends
Looking at the Global Trends Report, two titans jump out as topics of interest over and over again: Ukraine and the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. This makes sense: the war in Ukraine has had worldwide ramifications, and the Queen reigned (ceremonially) over 56 sovereign nations. There’s also a lot of continuing concern about COVID-19, as well as new searches in relation to Mpox (formerly referred to as Monkeypox). In terms of people, Russia’s Vladimir Putin rose in searches after his invasion of Ukraine, but he still fell short of three figures: Amber Heard, Johnny Depp, and Will Smith. The Depp-Heard defamation trial and “The Slap” apparently captured more hearts and minds. One final search that caught my eye: CFL (Canadian Football League) scores topped NFL scores in terms of searches and interest, despite a much smaller market. I guess the international world likes to see Canadians duke it out in their fields of maple syrup.
National Trends
Given that the U.S. makes up a large portion of the population who Google, our national trends aren’t all that different from the international ones. One major difference is the prevalence of election-related results, including people like Kari Lake and terms like “election results.” The midterm elections weighed heavy on the minds of Americans, which is reflected here. There’s also a much bigger focus on people who are famous in America but not the rest of the world, such as football player Antonio Brown. Wordle was internationally dominant, but Americans particularly liked its many spin-offs: Quordle (Wordle with four words), Heardle (Wordle with song snippets), and Worldle (Wordle with geography) made the top five games alongside their originator (the other game is Eldenring).
Local Trends
Ann Arbor is a small town, comparatively, so our local trend results are lumped in with Detroit and other places in the vicinity. There are some notable things that southeast Michiganders search for that other people don’t. For example, no one is as interested in a recipe for BLT Pasta Salad as we are. There was a rash of recipes published over the summer; here’s one. Speaking of food and drink, only Chicago comes close to us in terms of passion for happy hours, and we stand in a league of our own for finding print shops. For those of us who have been to Skeeps or seen the wealth of posters around town, that might not be that surprising. Our most searched animal was the capybara, although if my Instagram Discover page is any indication that isn’t a strictly local phenomenon.
The View from QMSS
To conclude, I figured I’d look at the term “QMSS.” We see many peaks and valleys for the term over the year, and it isn’t immediately apparent what these correspond to. The highest peak comes in mid-July; perhaps students were spending the summer worriedly searching for a new minor program. Unsurprisingly, Michigan and New York (home of Columbia’s QMSS program) are hotspots. California is there, too, for some reason or another. The number one associated search term is U of M Ann Arbor, followed by Master’s Degree—a small victory in our struggle to be the first result when you google QMSS.
That’s a Wrap
No matter how this past year went for you, the entire QMSS family wishes you a Happy New Year full of data, interpretation, and better understanding. And hopefully us overtaking the Columbia program in search results. That, too. If you’ve got any resolutions, make sure to check out our article from last year on the best way to keep them. If you’ve got any more interest in Google Trends, you can check out this older article on some trends from last year.