Google Search by country: What did Central Europeans search for most in 2020?

Google published its annual “Year in Search”, revealing the top global Google searches by country. To highlight the most significant events and say goodbye to 2020, we collected the top searches in some of the neighboring Central European countries: in the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Slovakia.

Czech Republic

• Coronavirus – the most obvious search trend this year among Czechs was the virus that sparked the COVID-19 pandemic. The interest in novel coronavirus peaked between 8^th-21^st March in the Czech Republic when the search interest was valued at 100.
• US election – Czechs were surprisingly interested in the US election, which took place on November 3^rd and ended with the victory of the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden. Similarly, the most searched for foreign personality was Joe Biden, whose inauguration will take place on the 20^th of January.
• ČT24 – the third most searched term was the Czech news channel operated by Czech Television. The interest in it peaked around the same time when coronavirus was trending on Google – between March 15^th-21^st.

The most searched Czech person was Roman Prymula – the ex-minister of Health, who was forced to resign following the violation of COVID-19 rules earlier this year. Czechs also expressed the most interest in Kobe Bryant, a basketball player who tragically died in a helicopter crash, among the people who passed in 2020. The most searched “how to” were how to make and how to wear a face mask. Slunečná was ranked the trendiest Czech TV show, followed by Svatba na první pohled.

Slovenia

• US election – similarly, the US election was the number one top search in Slovenia. Citizens closely followed the course and results of the rivalry between the Republican candidate Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
• Coronavirus – Slovenians also searched for the novel coronavirus with the interest peaking between March 8^th-14^th.
• Race across France – citizens were highly interested in the annual Tour De France along with the Race across Spain, – a men’s bicycle race. This year, Slovenian cyclist Tadej Pogačar was announced as the second-youngest winner of the Tour de France after the spectacular performance in Paris.

Slovenians other top searches included the TV shows Najini mostovi and Jutranja ptica, as well as Kobe Bryant and the annual sale Black Friday.

Slovakia

• Edupage – an app used for interactions between the pupils, parents, and teachers was revealed as the most trending search in Slovakia. The number of requested searches peaked in spring (during the first lockdown) and then in autumn, around October (during the second lockdown).
• Results of the 2020 election – similarly to their neighbors, Slovaks were also interested in the outcome of the 2020 US presidential race. The most searched foreign personality, just like in Czechia, was Joe Biden, followed closely by Donald Trump.
• Igor Matovič – the Slovak Prime Minister trended in Slovak Google Searches throughout the entire year. A week ago, the Prime Minister tested positive for COVID-19 – at the same time, the interest in his persona increased. The number of searches peaked during the first wave of the pandemic, between March 1^st-March 7^th.

Among some other key trends were “how to sew a mask” in the “How?” category; “when schools open” and “when does time change?” in the “When?” category.

Photo credit: Duncan Meyer on Unsplash