“Can you eat cats?” and other popular Google searches during the Coronavirus lockdown
Using Google Trends to see the increase in some weird and wonderful queries.
Google Trends is a great tool which shows how the popularity of a certain search term has changed over time. It’s especially useful when you want to see which of two words are more commonly used (for example, Covid-19 or Coronavirus?) or if you’re curious to see changes in what people have been searching for — say, during a pandemic.
Here’s a starter for ten.
“How to cut hair”
Because your barber can’t cut your hair while also keeping 2 metres away.
“How to cut your own hair”
Just be careful you don’t end up with ‘the Joe Exotic’. Unless that’s what you’re going for, in which case, you do you.
“How to make bread”
With all those empty shelves, people decided to buy up all the flour and make their own bread - before realising they didn’t know how.
“How to make bread without flour”
Bad news: You can’t.
“Can you eat cats?”
Some people out there are asking the important questions. Related: Can you eat hamsters?
“Best guns”
Filtered by the United State of ‘Murica.
“Home brew beer”
Filtered by the United Kingdom. Now those are priorities.
“How to make fire”
Just in case the beer doesn’t work out.
See also: “Doomsday prepping”
Presumably for when the wifi stops working and your children eat each other.
“How to make your own hand sanitiser”
One of those things nobody ever wanted to know before March 2020.
“Holiday destinations”
Your choice for holiday destinations are now: Your living room or your kitchen. Notice the spike around Christmas and New Year, before our dreams were destroyed.
“How to write a will”
Filtered by here in the UK again, where the glass is half full. Of shit.
“Toilet paper alternatives”
Oh god.
“What is Zoom”
During the 1918 flu pandemic, Vick’s Vapo Rub did a roaring trade. In the time of Coronavirus, it is Zoom.
And finally…
“Coronavirus porn”
For when ‘slutty vampire hentai’ just won’t do the job anymore.
By looking into our Google search terms we can get a quick birds eye view of society’s hopes, its fears, and in particular, its ignorance. (Bonus graph: The infamous “what is the European Union” spike immediately after the UK voted to leave the European Union.)
But I digress. Try out Google Trends for yourself and post your favourite searches below in the comments!
