How COVID-19 has changed what we search for online

What are we searching for online as many of us live under lockdown restrictions to avoid COVID-19?

Google Trends offers insights into what people in different countries are thinking and searching for in the midst of the pandemic.

Around the world, searches relating to whether children can pass on coronavirus spiked on 12 May, while those about good hobbies to take up during quarantine soared 400% in the United States.

Coronavirus is a huge search topic, eclipsing many others, the data shows.

And while the global languages of search may differ, many of the concerns are similar. Google’s EMEA director of insights Lucy Sinclair outlined some of these, including how financial security has remained top of people’s minds. There are increased searches for ‘unemployment benefit’ (‘prestación por desempleo’) in Spain, ‘furlough claim’ in the United Kingdom, ‘unemployment grant’ in South Africa and ‘job centre’ (‘urząd pracy’) in Poland.

It’s not all serious stuff. Rising ‘how to’ queries in the UK include how to make the cocktail Pimm’s, how to make a face mask out of a sock and how to fold a cereal box.

In Canada, the top ‘how to’ question is about temporary income support, the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), followed by how to make a face mask and hand sanitizer.

Sinclair says all the data Google is compiling also shows how consumer behaviour is changing, with searches for home exercise and ‘walks near me’ on the up.

“People are increasingly playing games such as ‘bingo’ in Denmark,” she wrote. “And ‘old-fashioned Dutch games’ (‘oud hollandse spelletjes’) in the Netherlands.”