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What a year it’s been! Google reveals Australia’s most searched for terms

Dec 11, 2019

What a year it's been! Google reveals Australia's most searched for terms

Google have released their most searched for terms of the past year and the top result in Australia is perhaps unsurprising, as out of control bushfires continue to blaze across several states.

The term ‘fires near me’ was the most common query among Australian users in 2019, according to the Year in Search report released by Google on Wednesday, as concerned Aussies tried to keep themselves safe during the country’s worst-ever bushfire season.

It was a huge year for sport too which is reflected by the fact that the second most common search term in Australia was ‘Rugby World Cup’, while the ‘Cricket World Cup’ followed close behind in third.

Rounding out the list of the top five search terms were ‘Election Results Australia 2019’ and ‘Cameron Boyce’, with the spike in searches for the Disney Channel star no doubt triggered by his untimely death at the age of 20 in July.

It was a slightly different story when it came to Google News searches though with the NSW bushfires and other natural disasters ranking highly in 2019 with some of Australia’s top news queries including ‘Cyclone Oma’ and ‘Townsville flooding’.

Other major news events also dominated such as the birth of the Duke and Duchess’ son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, the United Kingdom’s impending exit from the European Union and the devastating shooting attacks at two Christchurch mosques back in March.

The report also revealed the most common ‘How to’ search terms of the past year, and the May 18 General Election took the top spot with Aussies taking to Google to find out ‘How to Vote’, while ‘How to vote Labor 2019’ and ‘How to vote Liberal’ claimed the third and fourth spots respectively. The second most common ‘How to’ search was ‘How to watch Game of Thrones’ as the hugely successful HBO series came to a dramatic end earlier this year, while ‘How to pronounce psalm’ also made it into the top five.

While the top 10 list of most searched for Australian figures also painted an illuminating picture of the past year, with tennis ace Ash Barty taking out the top spot thanks to the incredible year she’s had, followed closely by controversial Senator Fraser Anning and former Wallabies star Israel Folau who has dominated headlines in recent months thanks to his legal battle with Rugby Australia, which came to a close recently, over unfair dismissal.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, former Labor leader Bill Shorten and Cardinal George Pell, who was jailed at the start of the year after being found guilty of child sex offences, also made the top 10.