Football and cricket world cups and blockbuster summer movies sparked a storm of Google searches
Sports topics dominated Google searches in Canada this year, while “Oppenheimer” edged out “Barbie” for movie queries.
The Silicon Valley-based technology company has released its annual roundup of the most popular topics on the search engine around the world and in dozens of countries.
And it was the FIFA Women’s World Cup that dominated the news in Canada, boosted by interest in the soccer championship that took place in Australia and New Zealand over the summer. The ICC Cricket World Cup came in as the second most searched news topic, ahead of questions about the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
Meanwhile, Barbenheimer’s cultural impact sparked interest in films, although it was Christopher Nolan’s nuclear bomb drama “Oppenheimer” that beat out the iconic doll-smuggling drama. children of Mattel “Sound of Freedom”.
Hollywood actor Jeremy Renner was the most fashionable person of the year. The Marvel star was rushed to intensive care on New Year’s Day after being run over by his snow plow. It ranked above searches for convicted rapist and former “That ’70s Show” star Danny Masterson and Vancouver internet personality Lil Tay, who was the target of a death hoax.
Google says it collected its search results for 2023 from January 1 to November 27.
Current events drove the top questions searched on Google in Canada, with “How deep is the Titanic?” ” topped the list for the year after rescuers searched for the missing crew of the Titan submersible over the summer.
Questions about Israel and Gaza were also the most frequently searched, including “What is Hamas?” and “What is happening in Israel-Gaza?”
The decision to remove an iconic tissue brand from Canadian store shelves was the source of another frequently asked question: “Why is Kleenex leaving Canada?”
Meanwhile, ‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry topped the search list for ‘People Who Passed’, followed by Irish singer Sinead O’Connor and Tina Turner.
NFL safety Damar Hamlin was Google’s top trending athlete. The Buffalo Bills player suffered a near-death cardiac arrest on the field in January, but has since made a celebrated comeback.
TV searches saw viral drama “The Last of Us,” romantic comedy “Ginny & Georgia” and Fleetwood Mac-inspired fantasy rock “Daisy Jones and the Six” emerge as the top three.
In French searches, the most asked question was “How did Mickey Mouse die?” ” – likely thanks to a TikTok trend in which users of the social media platform filmed their reactions to searching for that phrase.
Online marketplace Temu topped searches for news and events in France after media reports drew attention to privacy concerns and data collection by the Chinese discount retailer.
The search trends provided by Google Canada were less detailed than those in some other countries, which fleshed out queries on a range of other topics, including memes, recipes, musicians and songs.
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