Screenshot from Google's video for their year end search results.

Google’s Most Searched-For Terms Perfectly Summarize a Year That Was Truly Something Else

What have we been searching for this whole time?

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Google has released its list of trends from this year and it’s astonishing to see a summary of the ongoing turbulence that has been 2020. It’s not like I’ve forgotten, I don’t think any of us will EVER forget this year, but watching a 3-minute summary of events is … unreal.

I remember, at one point this year, my mom telling me that it felt like we were living through an episode of The Twilight Zone where everything was entirely too much. The hits kept coming with no breathing room in between, and as the Google video says, all we could do was ask why.

There’s a part where actor Leslie Jordan asks how long March is gonna last, and … yeah, I remember feeling like March was the longest century of the year, only to feel that same exhaustion during the summer of civil unrest and again during election week. The video shows clips of Kobe Bryant and I paused because, wow, that was also this year wasn’t it? That was near the beginning of what would prove to be an extremely trying start to a new decade that most of us, back in January, were ready to embrace.

Of course, terms like election results, coronavirus, stimulus check, Black Lives Matter, and Australia fires top several trending lists. All I can say is that it’s been a trip, y’all, one that I hope to never experience again.

Weirdly, though, in a year like 2020 it … hasn’t been all bad? The list is definitely worth checking out, but I wanna take a second to remind everyone of some of the more entertaining trends from the year.

Definitions: The top definition searched for on Google is, drumroll please, WAP! I’m assuming this is due to folks who hadn’t heard the song and, well, social media wasn’t terribly helpful since it kept getting re-defined for the lulz.

And of course, this gem, which I’m entirely too curious to hear.

If you still don’t know WAP stands for the ultimate Nintendo ship: Waluigi and Peach.

via GIPHY

Games: I’m actually surprised the number one spot isn’t Animal Crossing. It’s not even in the top 5! Still, when this is the year of imposters looking all kinds of suspect, is there any doubt that Among Us took first place?

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Recipes: To this day I have never baked bread and I’m damn proud of myself. No disrespect to my sourdough bread makers, I just … um … suck at baking. I saw all kinds of beautiful pictures of friends who decided to give it a shot and noped the eff out. That’s way too much work for me, besides, I had enough out of stock grocery store items I was scrambling to find.

via GIPHY

TV Shows: 

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In hindsight … what the hell did we binge-watch? No, seriously, what was this series? It feels like a fever dream we all collectively had.

Where to buy: I was ready for this to be toilet paper or hand sanitizer but I clearly underestimated the power of the video game community. Congratulations, y’all, you managed to top the list with the Playstation 5.

via GIPHY

Don’t worry, Xbox Series X, you’re #4 on the list. Still, with a list that consists of toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and face masks the PS5 was (and still is) so hard to find that it was searched for the most throughout 2020. Wow.

What did you turn to Google for during 2020? If you went and checked out the list are there any standouts to you? More importantly, what terms are you hoping we get to search for in 2021? I’m ready for some relief to be trending.

(Image: Google)

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Author
Image of Briana Lawrence
Briana Lawrence
Briana (she/her - bisexual) is trying her best to cosplay as a responsible adult. Her writing tends to focus on the importance of representation, whether it’s through her multiple book series or the pieces she writes. After de-transforming from her magical girl state, she indulges in an ever-growing pile of manga, marathons too much anime, and dedicates an embarrassing amount of time to her Animal Crossing pumpkin patch (it's Halloween forever, deal with it Nook)