Every year Google shares the top trending search terms and questions Canadians inquired about – and this year is no exception.
The year in Google news trends: War, World Cup and Wordle
The word of the year in search trends is Wordle, the humble daily game created by Brooklyn-based Josh Wardle as a way to entertain his partner during quarantine.
After its explosive popularity, he sold it to the New York Times. (Canuckle, a Canadian off-shoot, came in at number eight.)
Other topics on Canadians’ minds include Ukraine, World Cup (number two and three), Queen Elizabeth, controversial celebrities like Johnny Depp and Will Smith and celebrities who passed (Betty White, Bob Saget and Anne Heche).
As for hard-hitting news, Canadians had a wide range of interests, including world events (Ukraine, U.S. midterm elections, monkeypox), sports (World Cup 2022), entertainment (Oscars 2022) and high-profile Canadian headlines (Lisa LaFlamme, Saskatchewan stabbing, CNE, Rogers outage, Freedom Convoy 2022).
The big questions: the whys and hows of Google searches
Canadians had some pressing questions for Google this year with the war in Ukraine, U.K. politics, an unprecedented cellphone outage, shortages in baby formula and Tylenol and gas prices in the mix.
These are the headline-making questions:
- Why is Russia attacking Ukraine?
- Why is Rogers down?
- Why did Will slap Chris?
- Why is Ukraine not in NATO?
- Why is there a formula shortage?
- Why is gas so expensive right now?
- Why are truckers protesting?
- Why is there a Tylenol shortage?
- Why is Crypto currency going down?
- Why did Liz Truss resign?
When searching for instructions, Canadians asked Google “how to” instructional questions on a wide range of topics in finance, charity, gaming, sports, health and world events.
“How to watch the World Cup” was the top question, followed by:
- how to take a rapid test
- how to help Ukraine
- how to get a vaccine QR code
- how to create an NFT
- how to pronounce Kyiv
- how to evolve Charcadet
- how to “respect” in Elden Ring
- how to evolve Cosmog in Pokemon and;
- how to pronounce Qatar. (Spoiler alert: it’s kuh-taar.)
The year in Hollywood: celebrity scandal, Netflix and superheroes
It was the slap that was heard around the world and Canadians were very curious about the details. Will Smith ranked #2 and #4 in the top 10 list of searched celebrities.
Number one was Johnny Depp, with Amber Heard in third spot – their ranking no doubt spurred by the highly publicized defamation trial in the U.S.
Adam Levine landed in fifth place (thanks in small part to a cheating scandal), with King Charles, Jada Pinkett Smith, Julia Fox, Bruce Willis and Mary J. Blige rounding out the eclectic list of celebrity newsmakers.
This year, Canadians talked about Bruno (a lot) as Encanto took the top spot in searched films. Not far behind were:
- Top Gun
- Everything Everywhere All at Once
- The Batman
- Thor: Love and Thunder
- Black Adam
- Morbius
- Netflix’s Unchartered and;
- Don’t Worry Darling.
In TV, Netflix dominated binge-watching time, nabbing four out of 10 spots. The top-searched TV series in Canada were:
- Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (Netflix)
- Euphoria (HBO)
- Stranger Things (Netflix)
- Inventing Anna (Netflix)
- The Watcher (Netflix)
- House of Dragon (HBO)
- Moon Knight (Disney +)
- Yellowstone (Paramount+)
- The Boys (Amazon Prime) and:
- The Summer I Turned Pretty (Amazon Prime).
The year in sports: World Cup and CFL scores
From the world stage to local teams, Canadians’ Google searches went way beyond hockey.
The Canadian men’s appearance in World Cup in 37 years caused quite a commotion. World Cup topped the list of top sports searches, followed by Olympic medal count, Calgary Flames, Olympics, CFL scores, T20 World Cup 2022, Asia Cup 2022, Canada soccer, Golden State Warriors and Indian Wells tennis.
Five-time Stanley Cup champion Guy Lafleur was the top athlete name searched in 2022, followed by a mix of athletes and coaches in tennis, hockey, skiing, figure skating and football.
In order of appearance, these were the top searched names in sports: Guy Lafleur, Novak Djokovic, Antoio Brown, Serena Williams, Eileen Gu, Kamila Valieva, Felix Auger Aliassime, Mitchell Miller, Johnny Gaudreau and Kirby Dach.
