The most searched terms on Google in Switzerland in 2022 were “Ukraine”, “World Cup 2022” and “Wordle”, according to data published by the search engine.
In fourth place was the tennis player “Novak Djoković”, followed by “Australian Open”, “Nations League”, “Jeffrey Dahmer”, a mass murderer, “Olympics 2022”, referring to the Beijing Winter Olympics, “Queen Elizabeth II” and “Johnny Depp”.
The top five Swiss personalities searched were the two well known Swiss tennis players: Roger Federer (1st) and Martina Hingis (5th), Joel Wicki (2nd), the winner of this years Swiss Lutte (fight) competition, Simonetta Sommaruga (4th), Switzerland’s energy minister, and Luzia Tschirky (3rd), a Russian-speaking Swiss reporter who covered events in Belarus and Ukraine and announced her pregnancy this year.
Beyond simple word or name searches, the data crunchers at Google analysed questions searched into “how”, “what” and “why” categories.
The top five “how” questions were: “How long is omicron contagious?”, “How many hydroelectric power plants are there in Switzerland?”, “How old is Putin?”, “What do you call older influencers?”, and “How long is the equator?”
The top five “what” questions were: “What is an oligarch?”, “What is NATO?”, “What is 2G Plus?”, “What to do with a wasp sting?” and “What are sanctions?” If you were wondering, 2G Plus has nothing to do with ancient mobile networks. Instead it refers to Covid-19 rules. 2G refers to people that have been vaccinated or recovered from an infection and the Plus refers to those with a negative test result. These definitions were introduced at the end of 2021 and used to restrict access to public spaces to cut the spread of the disease.
The top five “why” questions were: “Why is Russia attacking Ukraine?”, “Why is the sky yellow today?” – see answer here, “Why are petrol prices rising?”, “Why is it called Albanifest?” and “Why is the sky blue?” – answer here. The Albanifest is a winter festival in Winterthur. Why is it called Albanifest? Well since you’re asking it’s named after St. Alban, one of the city’s three patron saints.
More on this:
Google Trends data (in English)
For more stories like this on Switzerland follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
