What people search on the internet can provide some interesting insight into society, which is why it’s always fun to take a look at the results of Google’s Year in Search.

While we’re at it, let’s see how the UK compares to South Africa, just for kicks.

According to Google, this year’s trending searches show South Africans’ keen interest in local celebrities, news and events, with six of the top 10 trending search terms being local, reports BusinessTech.

While we were stressing about load shedding, politics and Zuma, The Telegraph notes that the Brits were mostly focussed on that royal couple, Meghan and Harry.

Meghan, it seems, is the great uniter of Google searchers everywhere. Take a look:

The Top 10 Trending South African Searches

• World Cup fixtures
• Load shedding
• Global Citizen
• Zuma
• Winnie Mandela
• HHP
• Listeriosis
• Black Panther
• Meghan Markle
• Mac Miller

The Top 10 Trending UK Searches:

• World Cup
• Meghan Markle
• Royal wedding
• Black Panther
• Roxanne Pallett (embroiled in Celebrity Big Brother ‘punch’ row)
• Fortnite (video game which became hugely popular in 2018)
• Demi Lovato
• Ant McPartlin
• A Star Is Born
• Khloe Kardashian

What this tells us is that South Africans and the English have the following interests in common:

• World Cup
• Meghan Markle
• Black Panther

We have more crossover if we take the top 10 question searches into account. Here’s what South Africans were asking on Google this year:

• How did Avicii die?
• How old is Pharrell Williams?
• What is listeriosis?
• What is black data?
• How old is Prince Harry?
• How much are Global Citizen tickets?
• How to get pregnant?
• What time is the royal wedding?
• What happened to HHP?
• How old is Meghan Markle?

The royal wedding adds another layer of shared interests between the two countries.

Also, for your viewing pleasure, some Google search fails on how to get pregnant:

Gets me every time.

Meghan is ‘pargnat’ at the moment, so we’ll likely see her topping the search lists again next year when she spawns the royal infant.

Just remember, as you go into a new year of Google searches, ‘safe search’ is your friend.

[source:businesstech&telegraph]