From Kellie Harrington to Carbonara: What Ireland Googled in 2021

AS 2021 comes to a close the Google Year in Search results give us a snapshot of what caught the country’s attention over the past year.

In a year where Covid restrictions continued, sport was one of the most popular topics that people turned to Google to find out more about over the last 12 months.

With rescheduled sport tournaments taking place alongside annual competitions, sporting topics take the top two spots on the overall Google Year in Search list, with the European Football Championships the most searched trend followed by the Premier League.

The Irish nation’s sporting interest can also be seen on the most searched people list as Christian Eriksen, the Danish Footballer who suffered a cardiac arrest during their Euro 2020 group stage match with Finland this summer, is revealed as the most searched person and Olympic Gold medalist Kellie Harrington is the fifth most Googled person this year.

While Coronavirus continued to dominate the news agenda this year it did drop one place in the overall most Googled list to take the third spot.

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Every day, millions of people turn to Google to ask questions, and the pandemic drove even more concern for our health ‘How to register for the Covid-19 vaccine’ was the most Googled question of the year. Other Covid-19 related questions in the top trending searches included ‘How to do an Antigen test’, ‘How to book a Covid-19 test’,’How to apply for the Covid-19 payment’ and ‘How to get the Covid-19 certificate’.

Like last year, people continued to search for ways to stay connected and entertained at home with Netflix smashes Bridgerton and Squid Game taking the top spots this year for searches for TV shows. While returning favourites such as Love Island and Eurovision were also big searches as they returned to our screens after a break last year.

The Top 10 Most Googled recipe list gives us a glimpse into what Ireland has been cooking this year.  2021 saw comfort food taking over the most Googled list, with Pancakes, Waffles and Shepherd’s Pie all breaking into the top ten. The summer heatwave also saw Iced Coffee take over with ‘How to Make an Iced Coffee’ the second most popular question people asked Google this year.

As the Brexit transition period came to an end and the UK officially left the European Union, Irish people turned to Google to find out the implications. “What is Article 16” was the top what if question of the year. While political issues dominated the top ten “What is” questions on Google this year, people still found time for those biggest questions in life like, “What is a Verb”, “How to get rid of fruit flies” and “How to solve a rubix cube”.

Search can help you find a world of information – and the way people use Search can be a window into the world. Take a closer look at this year’s trending lists at Google.com/2021.