December 07, 2022
Did you spend part of the year searching for pancake recipes, election results or the correct pronunciation of omicron? So did millions of other Google users.
The search engine has unveiled its 2022 "Year in Search" — a compilation of the most-searched terms across news, pop culture and sports — and a few familiar faces are on it. Some of them are unfortunately no longer with us. For instance, Bob Saget, the "Full House" star and Philadelphia native who died of accidental head trauma in January, ranked No. 5 on Google's overall searches for the year.
The NLSC-winning (but sadly, World Series-losing) Philadelphia Phillies were the most-searched sports team this year. This should come as little surprise to Phillies fans, who also single-handedly doubled the Spotify streams of Calum Scott, the English singer whose remixed cover of Robyn's "Dancing On My Own" became a Phillies anthem in the playoffs.
"Phillies tickets" were also the No. 4 search in Google's "tickets" category, ranking just below another Pennsylvania celeb. "Taylor Swift tickets" took the No. 3 spot, no doubt fueled by the Ticketmaster debacle that left fans shut out of the pop star's "Eras Tour" presale, led to the cancellation of the tour's regular sale and spurred FTC complaints from legal eagles who jam to "Anti-Hero" on the side.
The third most-searched TV show was Netflix's "The Watcher," a thriller series drawn from a real-life case out of Westfield, New Jersey. The show, which will return for a second season, is loosely based on the 2014 stalking of the Broaddus family by a mysterious figure known only as "the watcher." Incidentally, "Who is the watcher?" was also the No. 3 search in Google's "Who is..." category — and in case you were wondering, no one knows. To this day, the perpetrator has never been caught.
Will Smith's infamous Oscars slap of the show's host, Chris Rock, likely propelled the West Philly star to the No. 2 spot in Google's "people" and "actors" categories. Rock even caught some of those searches himself, ranking No. 4 in actors.
To discover more of the year's most-searched words, people and queries, head over to Google's Year in Search 2022.
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