Google Trends data is a timely and culturally relevant reflection of the world. At the end of every year, Google’s Year in Search reveals the top questions, moments and individuals that the world searched for.

Interactive Experience

This experience features roughly 50 Google Trends insights:

The time frame of each insight is January 1, 2020 - November 10th, 2020
“Worldwide” insights are validated worldwide in English language.
Insights that are validated"worldwide" do not include the following countries: China, Iran, and North Korea.
Country-specific insights are validated in the applicable country in the following languages: UK (UK English), Netherlands (Dutch), Sweden (Swedis), Denmark (Danish), Finland (Finnish), Norway (Norwegian), Belgium (Dutch, German, French), Russia (Russian), AU (English), NZ (English), Indonesia (Indonesian), SEA (Thai, Vietnamese, UK English, Malay) Spain (Spanish) and Brazil (Brasilian Português).
All insights are validated by Google News Lab using a mixture of the Google Trends Explore tool and Google’s proprietary internal tools.

Film

The Year in Search film is rooted in Google Trends data and features 1) a foundational insight and 2) a series of queries:

The foundational insight for the film is: This year, the world searched for “why” more than ever before.
1. This insight was validated worldwide for 2020 (January 1, 2020 - November 11th, 2020). Insights that are validated “worldwide” do not include the following countries: China, Iran, and North Korea.
Each of the “why” queries featured in the film were validated worldwide in English language, and had more search interest in 2020 than the year prior. Additionally, each query was required to meet a minimum threshold of search interest in 2020 to qualify for the film.
1. Each query included in the following versions the film had an average increase of 2x search interest in 2020 compared to 2019: UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Belgium, Russia, AU, NZ, Indonesia, SEA, Spain, Brazil and the country-agnostic version. (See languages in the Interactive section above.)
2. The “why” queries were adapted to be relevant in the following countries/regions: Japan
  - In these adaptations, country-specific queries are validated in the applicable country in that country’s national language, and each query had more search interest in 2020 than the year prior.
3. Some queries are displayed with written accents, although the validated query did not have accents.

Spanish translation of data is based on U.S., English language insights.