According to a report published on Wednesday by Google India, titled ‘Year in Search 2022’, India’s interest in 2022 was spread across a broad range of topics, including trending terms, sports events, news events, movies, how-tos, and more. The leading search trends in the were for IPL, the T20 World Cup 2022, the FIFA World Cup, CoWIN, Brahmastra: Part One – Shiva, and KGF: Chapter 2. 

IPL takes the lead

India not only dominated sports trends domestically, but also globally, taking the top 5 spots. Similar excitement was felt in the world of football, with searches for the ongoing FIFA World Cup in India reaching a high this year and ranking among the most popular searches of the year, along with searches for the Indian Super League.

One more addition to the sporting list was search trends for Women’s Cricket World Cup which marked its debut this year on Google search in India. Kabaddi and tennis rounded up the trending sports events list with Pro Kabaddi League, Australian Open, and Wimbledon.

Interest in Government schemes

This year on Google, Indians also searched for helpful government schemes and initiatives. CoWIN, a government web portal that facilitates registrations and appointments for COVID-19 vaccines and issues digital vaccine certificates, ranked number two in trending searches as per the report.

e-SHRAM card — a government scheme to support unorganised workers with social security benefits — made it to the trending searches and ‘how to’ queries list. Agneepath scheme — a newly launched government scheme to recruit youth in the Indian army — led the ‘what is’ search queries.

Entertainment dominated by theatrical releases

When it comes to songs, Indians hummed to the tunes of Chaand Baaliyaan by singer Aditya A and Srivalli from the popular Telugu movie Pushpa: The Rise, as per the report.

The results of “near me” Google searches showed how Indians felt about the dismissal of COVID-19 cases and the easing of limitations. ‘COVID vaccination near me’ appeared at the top of the list in both 2021 and 2022. The most popular ‘near me’ searches this year, however, were for ‘movies near me’, ‘water parks near me’, swimming pools near me, and other travel and outing-related topics. In contrast, searches for ‘COVID test near me’, ‘Oxygen cylinder near me’, and ‘COVID hospital near me’ were made last year.

BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, who has since been suspended, was the most Googled person in India in 2022. Droupadi Murmu, the President of India, was followed by Lalit Modi, and the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak.

When it comes to food, people in India stuck to the Indian cuisine, while also showing interest in popular drinks — ‘Pornstar Martini’ and ‘Sex on the beach’.