Wink-girl Priya Prakash Varrier surfaced as the most searched personality on Google in India this year
Google on Wednesday released its 'Year in Search 2018' report to list down all the significant search queries that took place in India. In the top 10 overall list, sporting events and entertainment were the top topics that dominated search queries. The search giant said that queries around FIFA interestingly topped those around the IPL events, though India commonly counts as a cricket-frenzied nation. Searches for children's shows also made it to the top list with titles such as Baal Veer and Motu Patlu among the most searched shows.
This year in the top 10 overall list, Google revealed that sporting events along with entertainment were the two topics that dominated search queries in India. It has been found that football pipped cricket in the overall search listing in the country - with questions around FIFA surpassed the queries around the IPL events. Children's shows including Baal Veer and Motu Patlu also made it to the top 10 overall list, and queries related to Rajinikanth/ Akshay blockbuster Robot 2.0 rounded up the overall list.
Aside from the Indian Tamil-language action title, there were many Indian movies featured among the top 10 search queries, including Baaghi 2, Tiger Zinda Hai, and Dhadak. The top list also includes three Hollywood movies that all happened to be Marvel blockbusters, namely Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther, and Deadpool 2.
On the music front, Neha Kakkar's Dilbar Dilbar, Arijit Singh's Tera Fitoor dominated other tracks being searched on Google, whereas the lone non-regional track was Latin hit Despacito continued to feature in the top list this year.
Google also specified the personalities that took prominence in search results this year. Wink-girl Priya Prakash Varrier surfaced as the most searched personality on the search engine in India, followed by Priyanka Chopra's spouse Nick Jonas, while Chopra herself came at the fourth place. Indian dancer Sapna Choudhary making it to the top three. Meghan Markle also came in the list of most-searched-for personalities.
In general news, Google said three weddings figured prominently in the search queries, including the Priyanka Chopra/ Nick Jonas, Deepika Padukone/ Ranveer Kapoor, and Sonam Kapoor/ Anand Ahuja. News topics such as Section 377, Bitcoin, the Union Budget, and Nipah virus. The company also mentioned that 'How to..' and 'What is...' are among the most interesting searches. Queries such as 'What is the kiki challenge' and 'How to solve a Rubik's cube' were among the variety of top questions. This list of 'Near me..' queries also received the highest interest for mobile stores, supermarkets, gas stations, and cash points, with 'jobs near me' also surfaced on the list. Notably, Google earlier this year tied up with job portals such as Aasaanjobs, LinkedIn, TimesJobs, and WinsdomJobs to made it easier to find job listings in the country.
As for the global Year in Search 2018 list, the top search queries were World Cup, Avicii, Mac Miller, Stan Lee, and Black Panther. The top news topics searched for across the globe were World Cup, Hurricane Florence, Mega Millions Result, Royal Wedding, and Election Results. The top people searched for were Meghan Markle, Demi Lovato, Sylvester Stallone, Logan Paul, and Khloe Kardashian. In terms of movies, the top searched for titles were Black Panther, Deadpool 2, Venom, Avengers: Infinity War, and Bohemian Rhapsody.
You can take a look at the complete 2018 India-specific lists and global trends directly by visiting Google site. The company has provided over a thousand global top-ten lists across pop culture, sports, music, politics, and news among others from more than 75 countries.
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