The conflict in Ukraine and Rogers’ nation-wide service outage were top of mind for Canadians, as Google has revealed its top trending search terms for 2022.
According to the search engine’s data, the rest of the top news stories searched by Canadians include the emerging monkeypox risk, Lisa LaFlamme’s departure from Bell Media, the CNE, the U.S. midterm elections, the Saskatchewan stabbings in September, the World Cup 2022, the Oscars and the so-called “Freedom Convoy.”
Google says that, after two years of uncertainty, 2022’s search trends indicate Canadians were ready to come back together to share experiences, from educating ourselves on geopolitical matters like the invasion of Ukraine to major events in entertainment and sports to Canadian news that impacted their own communities.
The top “Why” questions, meanwhile, also revolved around Ukraine and Rogers – “Why is Russia attacking Ukraine?” and “Why is Rogers down?” being the top two queries. Canadians were also looking for answers about the baby formula and Tylenol shortages. They were also celebrity-obsessed, looking for answers about the Will Smith-Chris Rock slap, as well as the lurid details of the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial.
Even before the FTX scandal, search engine users were also asking “why is crypto currency going down?” amid the markets many crashes this year.
The most popular “How to?” questions were about the World Cup (specifically, how to watch it), the method for rapid COVID tests, helping people in Ukraine, obtaining vaccine QR codes and creating NFTs.
According to Google, 2022’s trends also proved that Canada isn’t just a hockey nation, as people searched to learn more about international sports like the cricket, World Cup and tennis. Top-trending athletes come from a wide range of backgrounds and sports, from hockey legend Guy Lafleur, whose death Canadians were interested in, to tennis wunderkind Felix Auger Aliassime.