Each week, we take a look at the top trending topics in Search for a sense of what the world is thinking about. Here’s a look at a few of the trending searches this week—some playful and some serious—with data from the Google News Lab.
[Insert header pun here … punalty intended]
This week, fans around the world put the Gooooooooooogle in goooooooooooal!, making the World Cup the single biggest topic in Search. Everybody loves a home team, but it’s Brazil that’s leading searches globally. Meh about the players but love the game? Get in on the action with “Drills and skills” videos on YouTube; their views have increased six times since the last FIFA World Cup. And you can keep track of all your favorite teams and players with Google Trends.
The best part of the world’s best lasagna
Amid searches for “best in the world,” the top contenders were “best soccer player in the world” (because World Cup, see above) and “best restaurants in the world,” since the list of
top 50 restaurants in the world was released this week. Topping the list is an Italian eatery whose menu listings include “an eel swimming up the Po river” and “the crunchy part of the lasagna.” Clearly they’re onto something ... the top searched “world’s best” food is lasagna, which maybe you’d pair with the next item on the list, “world’s best beer.”
The sun never sets on party ideas
If you found that beer, hopefully you sipped it on it yesterday—it was summer solstice, the longest day of the year. And if that lager rendered you pensive, you may have joined those who wondered, “what is the summer solstice?” and, soberly, “when does summer end?” Perk up while the sun’s up: “summer solstice party ideas” was the top related query to the phenomenon, and no place searched for the solstice more than the U.K., where nearly 10,000 people gathered to
celebrate at Stonehenge.
Summer solstice playlist
Queen Bey and the queen’s consort Jay-Z reign again, dropping a surprise album, “Everything Is Love,” last weekend. Search interest went up for both Bey and Jay in the U.S., 92 percent and 130 percent respectively, but Beyoncé was searched more than Jay-Z in every U.S. state. Jay-Z’s streaming platform Tidal also got its own wave of searches: interest in Tidal spiked 267 percent in the past week. The album release included a masterpiece of a music video at the Louvre, prompting people to search “How much does it cost to rent out the Louvre?” and “Where is the Mona Lisa?”
Crisis at the border
On a more serious note, the world turned its attention to the U.S.-Mexico border this week, as anger erupted over immigrant children being separated from their families and held at migrant detention centers. A
viral photo of a young girl caused a 3000 percent spike in searches for “crying toddler at border.” Searches for the Secretary of Homeland Security spiked by over 5000 percent, as did searches for former First Lady Laura Bush, who spoke out against the separation. The top “how to help” questions this week were “How to help immigrant children?” and “How to help families separated at the border?” as people searched for ways to contribute.
