It’s been another tough year for Australians in 2022 and as per normal that is reflected in the Search trends for the year. Google has released their Year in Search for 2022 with the results not entirely surprising.
Many communities in Australia once again dealt with “once in a century” floods our searches showed that we were looking for an end in sight with Australia that top country in the world searching for “floods”, La Niña, and “when will the rain stop” in 2022. Search interest in floods in Australia increased more than 200% compared to last year and search interest in La Niña has increased over 80%. Not coincidentally, our search interest for mould reached record levels.
Other disasters that influenced our search patterns were the Tonga volcano eruption and tsunami warnings and “why is Russia invading Ukraine”. All these crises caused a spike in the cost of living and Australian’s searched for questions why petrol, flights and lettuce were so expensive while also following the crash of crypto.
As the pandemic rolled onto a third year our new health consciousness shone through in our Search trends. Not only did we continue to search for COVID-19 related topics but also expanded to Monkeypox and Japanese encephalitis.
“Can you get COVID twice?”, “how long does COVID last?” and “can dogs get COVID?”
We searched for many different types of food recipes demonstrating our diverseness, searching for dahl, drunken chicken and fish tacos. Making our own Ezy-Sauce and the Aussie Jaffles were also near the top of the list along with time honoured favourites such as mashed potato and egg salad and the adventurous tripe and bunya nuts.
Paper art made a return in 2022 with search trends pointing towards folks looking to make paper poppers and paper cranes, to paper flowers, paper mache and more. Pom poms, friendship bracelets and terrariums also headed our crafty Search topics in 2022.
The Australian Open, The World Cup and Dylan Alcott being named Australian of the Year all featured prominently in our searches. Tennis was once again on our minds with Djokovic, Nadal and Medvedev topping the global figures list and Ash Barty the top trending Australian individual in 2022. AFLW also topped our top 10 trending sports for the first time in 2022.
The full list of Google Australia’s Year in Search can be seen below:
| OVERALL SEARCHES | NEWS EVENTS | AUSSIES |
| 1. Wordle 2. Australian Open 3. World Cup 4. Shane Warne 5. Ukraine 6. Novak Djokovic 7. Ashes 8. Ash Barty 9. Olivia Newton John 10. Betty White | 1. Ukraine 2. Election results 3. Omicron symptoms 4. Monkeypox 5. Tonga 6. Tsunami warning 7. Novavax Australia 8. Cassius Turvey 9. Covid update Perth 10. Japanese encephalitis | 1. Ash Barty 2. Nick Kyrgios 3. Anthony Albanese 4. Kokkinakis 5. Dylan Alcott 6. Brittany Higgins 7. Grace Tame 8. John Farnham 9. Alex de Minaur 10. Peter Dutton |
| GLOBAL FIGURES | LOSS | SPORT |
| 1. Novak Djokovic 2. Nadal 3. Medvedev 4. Amber Heard 5. Johnny Depp 6. Will Smith 7. Andrew Tate 8. Anna Delvey 9. King Charles 10. Danielle Collins | 1. Shane Warne 2. Olivia Newton John 3. Betty White 4. Queen Elizabeth 5. Anne Heche 6. Andrew Symonds 7. Taylor Hawkins 8. Aaron Carter 9. Bob Saget 10. Paul Green | 1. Australian Open 2. World Cup 3. Ashes 4. Winter Olympics 5. Rugby League World Cup 6. Indian Wells 7. Commonwealth Games 8. ATP Cup 9. AFLW 10. NBL |
| RECIPES | “HOW TO COOK” | “HOW TO MAKE…?” DIY QUERIES |
| 1. Dahl recipe 2. Ezy sauce recipe 3. Drunken chicken recipe 4. Mash potato recipe 5. Salmon patties recipe 6. Jaffle recipes 7. Fish tacos recipe 8. Egg salad recipe 9. Butter cream icing recipe 10. Lamb stew recipe | 1. How to cook tripe 2. How to cook corn on the cob 3. How to cook bunya nuts 4. How to cook bok choy 5. How to cook broccoli 6. How to cook pearl couscous 7. How to cook dumplings 8. How to cook tomahawk steak 9. How to cook chicken schnitzel 10. How to cook squid | 1. How to make a paper popper 2. How to make pom poms 3. How to make friendship bracelets 4. How to make a ninja star 5. How to make a paper crane 6. How to make paper flowers 7. How to make a terrarium 8. How to make stickers 9. How to make paper mache 10. How to make candles at home |
| “WHY IS…..?” | COVID QUESTIONS |
| 1. Why is Russia invading Ukraine 2. Why is plain yoghurt good for females 3. Why is petrol so expensive 4. Why is lettuce so expensive 5. Why is there a lettuce shortage 6. Why is diesel so expensive 7. Why is crypto going down 8. Why is Camilla queen consort 9. Why is Australia not part of NATO 10. Why is Snapchat not working | 1. Can you get COVID twice 2. How long does COVID last 3. Can dogs get COVID 4. How long is COVID contagious for 5. How long does it take to get COVID 6. How long do COVID symptoms last 7. Is vomiting a symptom of COVID 8. How long after COVID can I get a booster 9. How many people have died from COVID 10. What to do if COVID positive |
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