The year 2022 saw changes, passages, innovation and numbers that made a difference in Americans’ pocketbooks, according to a report on the most searched-for information on Google.
While you would expect some of the results at the top of the list of global searches — the death of Queen Elizabeth II (No. 4 on the most searched-for list), the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine (No. 3) — other things that people turned to Google to find were more surprising.
The top search on Google was for the word “Wordle.” Wordle is an online game in which you try to guess a five-letter word by making a series of guesses using letters you correctly guess as you go along.
Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer made the list, despite having died in 1994. Dahmer was the subject of a Netflix series.
In this midterm election year, election results were the No. 3 search under the news category. Powerball and Mega Millions lottery jackpot numbers were in the No. 4 spot.
Will Smith’s Oscar slap was No. 9 in news searches, with Will Smith as No. 2 in both the “people search” category and the “actors” search category.
As for actors, Johnny Depp was the most searched-for actor, and the actor who brought a lawsuit against him, former wife Amber Heard, was third on the list of searches for actors.
Novak Djokovic was the most searched-for athlete amid his clashes over COVID-19 vaccination mandates.
Serena Williams was third as she seemed to announce her retirement from professional tennis.
Brittney Griner, the professional women’s basketball player who was arrested in Russia and is serving time in prison there, was the seventh-most Googled athlete.
Specific to the United States, the top searches included Wordle (top overall), “How to pronounce Qatar,” musician Adam Levine, football player Antonio Brown and “gas prices near me.”
Americans wanted to know about the deaths of Betty White, Queen Elizabeth, Bob Saget and actress Anne Heche, and the definitions of “rupee,” “oligarch,” “Cacao,” and “recession.”
For a full list of what people around the globe asked Google to find for them, click here.
©2022 Cox Media Group
