Coronavirus, Ram Mandir most-searched news events on Google in 2020

New Delhi, Dec 09: Wit the year 2020 coming to an end, the novel coronavirus captured the whole world's attention this year, especially India, amid the concern about the pandemic, with a huge surge in queries related to the virus and the disease on Google.

However, the excitement around the recently-concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) made it the top trending query. Presidential elections in the US also triggered significant searches along with Bihar and Delhi assembly polls.

US President-elect Joe Biden was among the top trending personalities, along with TV journalist Arnab Goswami. Nirbhaya case, Beirut explosion, lockdown, China-India skirmishes, bushfires in Australia, locust swarm attack and Ram Mandir were among the most searched news events.

Google's initiative offers a unique perspective of the queries internet users ask of the search engine.

Interestingly, the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM Kisan Scheme), which provides monetary support to farmers, also made it to the trending charts.

According to reports, searches were largely centred around 'How to' and 'What is', reflecting concerns related to work-from-home and dealing with the pandemic.

With the lockdown, local searches surged with 'Near me' queries, which was dominated by 'Food shelters near me' followed by 'COVID test near me.' Given most were working remotely, searches for 'Broadband connection near me' and 'Laptop shop near me' figured prominently this year.