Election, Coronavirus, and Kobe Bryant Top Google's 2020 Searches

What a year!

Seriously, I swear it seems like it's been 2 years since January 1st, 2020.

To start the year off in January, Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven other people were killed in a helicopter crash in California. After Michael Jordan and Lebron James, he was the most decorated athlete and basketball player of this generation. I still haven't been able to process the monumental loss that hurt me and millions of other people.

Harry How, Getty Images

Then COVID-19 hit.

We weren't even settled into the New Year when the pandemic creeped in. We started seeing businesses closing and people losing their jobs, and then witnessed over 280,000 people lose their lives to this deadly disease.

Unsplash

Then the nation watched a police officer kill George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, which sparked protests and calls for fundamental reforms across all 50 states and the world.

Jim Vondruska, Getty Images

All our sports were postponed because of COVID.

We settled for old games on TV until officials could figure out what was next, and all of that was before July 1st.

Then, of course, there was the 2020 election. We're still dealing with the deep division that was present before the votes were cast, and that was amplified as the debates got more personal and felt more like school politics than leaders addressing a nation.

That just to name a few of the remarkable events of the year 2020

Google has released a list of the top trending searches in the United States this year. The data shows what's been on Americans' minds as we've navigated perhaps the strangest and most difficult year of our lives.

The top five were "election results", "coronavirus", "Kobe Bryant", "coronavirus update", and "coronavirus symptons".

It wasn't all doom and gloom, though. Searches of "how to donate..." and "how to help..." were up, showing that we didn't lose our generous spirit during the pandemic.

On a lighter note, people were searching for the definition of "WAP" thanks to what may be the year's most talked about song.

We all did more cooking at home this year, and the top recipe searches were for "sourdough bread", "whipped coffee", "Disney churro", "dole whip", and "doubletree cookie".

If there was one word we heard just as frequently as "coronavirus" this year, it was "virtual", and the search data reflects that too. Top searches included "virtual field trips", "virtual museum tours", "virtual Kentucky derby", "virtual learning", and "virtual NBA fans".

Check out the full list of America's top 2020 Google searchers here.