Year in Search: Sporting action and entertainment glitter marks 2018 for Indian Users

--‘FIFA World Cup’ top trending query on Google this year
---‘Robot 2.0’ makes the cut as the only movie in the top trending overall list

New Delhi, December 13, 2018:Bidding farewell to the year and anticipating the onset of 2019, Google India today announced its ‘Year in Search’ results, recapping the top search trends of 2018 in India. Google’s Year in Search continues to offer a unique perspective to the most significant moments in news, sports, politics, media and entertainment, and all the questions that have captured the minds of India’s internet users.

This year, sports and entertainment dominated the top trending charts with queries around FIFA World Cup 2018 leading the pack followed by Indian Premier League (IPL). Interestingly, football swept cricket in the overall search listing, with queries around Football World Cup topping those around the cricketing action during the IPL season.

During Karnataka’s state elections, queries around Karnataka elections soaredto mark its presence among the top trending queries, while Big Boss turned out to be the top choice when it came to entertainment this year, surpassing queries related to the Rajinikanth/Akshay blockbuster Robot 2.0. Also making it to the list were searches for children’s entertainment shows ‘??????’ (Baalveer) and ‘????????’ (Motu Patu).

On the cinema front, the Bollywood blockbusters overshadowed Hollywood in the search lists, with Robot 2.0 taking the top spot, followed by action thriller and Bollywood blockbusters Baaghi 2 and Race 3. The three Hollywood entries in the list happened to be from Marvel Studios: Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther, and Deadpool 2.

The songs that ruled the roost included Neha Kakkar’sDilbarDilbar, Arijit Singh’s Tera Fitoor and Atif Aslam’s DekhteDekhtefrom Bollywood. Interestingly, the lone English entrant was the ever-popular Latin hit song Despacito, which also happened to make it to the Year in Search list last year!

Among the most searched personalities that took prominence this year, Priya Prakash Varriertopped the list for her ‘wink’ that went viral, followed by none other than Priyanka Chopra’s spouse, Nick Jonas. Priyanka Chopra, came in at fourth place, with Sapna Choudhary figuring in the top three. The interest in royal weddings spiked as American actor turned Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle figured in the list of most-searched-for personalities.

From general news to news events, a wide range of topics this year reflected the zeitgeist of Search users. Celebrity weddings made big waves this year as fans scoured the web in search for the latest buzz on their favorite celeb marriages. The three weddings that figured prominently included Priyanka Chopra/Nick Jonas, Deepika Padukone/Ranveer Kapoor, and Sonam Kapoor/Anand Ahuja. Other news events that grabbed attention included queries around the world’s largest statue, the Statue of Unity, unveiled in Gujarat earlier this year. Rounding off the list was a span of news topics including the striking down of Section 377, the union budget, bitcoin, as well as the Nipah virus.

Among the most interesting search terms were those centered around ‘How to..’, and ‘What is…’, which saw a wide variety of questions spanning from ‘What is the kiki challenge’, to ‘How to solve a Rubik’s cube’. The list of ‘Near me…’ queries revolved around mobile stores, supermarkets, gas stations, and cash points, with jobs near me also figuring in the list.