PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — It's the new year, and Google has released the top search trends of 2020.
"We do get trillions of searches every year, so the numbers stay pretty high but it was interesting to see that some categories were definitely higher in percentage in 2020 specifically," said Google trends expert Marley McAliley.
People were home more than usual this year, so "how to make things" was a top trending category.
"Coming in at number one was how to make hand sanitizer," said McAliley. How to make face masks came in second in the category.
And how to make whipped coffee was third. Perhaps people missed their favorite coffee shops.
Of course, coronavirus and election results battled for first and second place among top searches.
But McAliley's favorite search trends were the topics that reminded her of pre-pandemic times.
"The top trending person as a musician was Shakira, which was great and a little surprising to me at first but then I remembered she was the Super Bowl headliner along with J-Lo," she said.
Another trend that stood out to McAliley was even more heartwarming.
"(An) example was 'how to help,' which was actually really heartening to see because more than ever people were searching how to help in 2020," she said.
"So we saw how to help during Australia wildfires, how to help Black Lives Matter and how to help during coronavirus which was really great to see, that even in these tough times, people are finding ways to come together and give back, and make a difference hopefully."
To hear more about Google trends in 2020, check out the KYW Newsradio original podcast KYW In Depth, above. Subscribe on the RADIO.COM app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.