Google reveals UK’s most searched for terms in 2019

Google has revealed the most searched for terms and questions in 2019, with its Year in Search, with the UK taking a bigger interest in the Rugby World Cup than Brexit.

The most searched for term in the UK for 2019 was the aforementioned Rugby World Cup, followed by the Cricket World Cup, and then Game of Thrones.

The search results are largely explained by a strong British showing in both tournaments, while the incredibly popular HBO series Game of Throne came to an end after eight seasons in May, with tensions and plotlines ramping up.

However, both the term Chernobyl and Thanos took the fourth and fifth positions respectively. Those results are a little more surprising, as, given the heavy media coverage of Brexit and other governmental machinations, one could be forgiven for thinking that ‘Brexit’ would be a highly searched term, but in the end, it failed to even make the top ten list for Google searches in the UK.

In fact, no political terms made it into the top 10 list, with the likes of the iPhone 11 and Caitlyn Jenner proving more popular than Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corby. Neither did Extinction Rebellion get a look in, despite the protests and demonstrations in the year gaining high-profile coverage, as well as support and equal measures of condemnation.

When it came to the most searched for news events, ‘revoke Article 50 petition’ came in third place, behind the ‘iPhone 11’ and ‘Notre Dame’ at the top spot.

As for the questions being asked by the Google Search users in the UK, ‘how to watch Champions League Final’, ‘how to watch Game of Thrones’ and ‘how to floss dance’ took the first, second, and third positions respectively.

‘How to register to vote’, seemingly pertinent given the General Election on Thursday 12 December, came in eighth place, being beaten by ‘how to eat a pineapple’.

While IT Pro endeavours to bring you the latest IT news and its effect on the UK public sector, politics and society, it would appear that many of Britain’s Google Search users are more interested in finding out about subjects that matter to them in the here and now, rather than longer-term effects of politics and technological change.