The High Five: Hurricane Irma, DACA and the Pope—search trends from this week

Each week, we take a look at the most-searched trends (with help and data from the team at Google News Lab). Here are a few top trends from this week:

Hurricane Irma

Irma was on the minds of many throughout the week, as the hurricane devastated the Caribbean and headed toward the U.S. As Florida braces for impact, people are searching for how to prepare—top searches in Florida include “how to board up windows” and “how to install hurricane shutters.” Floridians are also searching for where they can stock up on supplies like sandbags and water. Across the U.S., top queries include, “Where has Hurricane Irma hit?” “How wide is the eye of Hurricane Irma?” and “How to volunteer for Hurricane Irma?”

DACA

President Trump’s administration rescinded DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), which provides legal protection for immigrants—known as “Dreamers”—who came to the U.S. unlawfully as children. People searched for more information about the legislation, as well as information about how to take action. The top three questions about DACA were: “What to say to senators about DACA?” “When was DACA set to expire?” and “What do DACA recipients receive?” The top three states searching for DACA—Arizona, California and New Mexico—are ones with high populations of Dreamers.

On a lighter note

This week, celebrity news was ready to pop with baby announcements. Two celebrity couples—Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, and Princess Kate and Prince William—are expecting baby number three. Top searches for Kim and Kanye were about Kim’s surrogate, and people wanted to know who the surrogate is, why they’re using one, and how much they’re paying her. As for William and Kate, people are curious about the ages of the parents as well as the ages of their babies. If all this baby talk has you wondering about popular names these days, the top searched baby names this week were James, Isabella and Michael.

“Wow, in front of the Pope!”

That’s how the head of the Catholic Church responded when a young man proposed to his girlfriend during a papal audience. Bold move. People were searching about the proposal and for other Pope-related information like, “How long has the Pope been the Pope?” and “What country did the Pope recently visit?” And speaking of proposals … the top “how to’s” related to proposals include: “How to know if you should propose, “How to get your boyfriend to propose,” and “How to tell if he’ll ever propose.” Not sure Google (or the Pope) can help answer that one.

Roses are red, chocolates are ruby

The final trend of the week ends on a sweet note. Swiss company Barry Callebaut debuted a new natural ruby-colored chocolate this week, and chocolate lovers must know: “Where to buy ruby chocolate? “What variety bean is used in ruby chocolate?” and “Is Ruby chocolate vegan?” Other than pink chocolate, top searched pink foods this week were “pink drink Starbucks,” “pink moscato” and “pink champagne.”