Google released its annual “Year in Search” stats . . . and in 2022, it was dominated by: Wordle, elections, and celebrity deaths.
Here’s a rundown of the top searches in the U.S. . . .
1. The top news topics we googled were: Mid-term election results . . . Queen Elizabeth’s passing . . . Ukraine . . . Powerball numbers . . . and Hurricane Ian.
2. The top words we wanted defined were: Rupee . . . Oligarch . . . Cacao . . . Homer . . . and Recession. (It looks like “rupee”, “cacao”, and “homer” all spiked after they were featured in Wordle.)
3. The top “how to help others” searches were: “How to help Ukraine” . . . “How to help Ukrainian refugees” . . . “How to help abortion rights” . . . “How to help Ukraine army” . . . and “How to help Uvalde.” (The town in Texas that suffered a tragic elementary school shooting in May.)
4. The top “how to pronounce” searches were: “How to pronounce Qatar” . . . “How to pronounce Kyiv” . . . “How to pronounce puzzle” (???) . . . “How to pronounce Omicron” . . . and “How to pronounce ‘Encanto’.”
5. The top “near me” searches were: “Gas prices near me” . . . “At-home Covid testing near me” . . . “Voting near me” . . . “Early voting near me” . . . and “PCR test near me.”
6. The most-searched games were: Wordle . . . Quordle . . . Elden Ring . . . Heardle . . . and Worldle.
7. The top recipes we searched for were: Sugo . . . Cincinnati Chili . . . Marry Me Chicken . . . Quick Pancake . . . and Mango Pie.
(Sugo is an Italian red sauce . . . Marry Me Chicken is a viral one-pot dish involving chicken, cream, and Parmesan . . . and “Quick Pancake” is like a regular pancake. But quicker.) (???)
8. The top SHORTAGES we searched for were: Diesel shortage . . . baby formula shortage . . . tampon shortage . . . Adderall shortage . . . and Sriracha shortage.
9. The top “Who Is?” we searched for were: “Who is Andrew Tate?” . . . “Who is winning the election?” . . . “Who is the king of England?” . . . “Who is ‘the watcher’?” . . . and “Who is Alex Jones?” (“The Watcher” is a Netflix show.)
10. The Top Five searches overall this year were: Wordle . . . election results . . . Betty White, who passed on December 31st of last year . . . Queen Elizabeth, who passed in September . . . and Bob Saget, who passed in January.