Google review: a lot of searched for Peter R. de Vries

The murdered crime journalist Peter R. de Vries made the Dutch list last year trending Google searches on, as it says in the overview Year in Search 2021. The search engine keeps track of what users search for every year, “which gives a good idea of ​​the events that have been on people’s minds each year”.

According to Google, top trending does not mean that it is also the most searched term. It reflects what has been “remarkably much more searched than a year ago,” according to a press release. The most used search of the past year is ‘YouTube’, says the tech giant.

Looking for images De Vries

The search engine was used shortly after the attack in early July to find out exactly what had happened to De Vries and how he was doing. Some users wanted to learn more about his life, about his family, and others were looking for footage of the attempt on his life.

Number two in the list is ‘European Championship 2021’, the tournament was in June and July. The main focus was on the latest standings, scores and match schedules. Google calls it remarkable that the search term is in second place because the official name of the tournament is ‘Euro 2020’, because the tournament was postponed for a year due to corona.

In third place is the search term ‘Stemwijzer’. As in other years in the run-up to elections, this is a popular search. Especially on March 16, a day before the elections to the House of Representatives, people often googled about it. “That suggests that many voters are still searching for information about the participating political parties at the last minute.”

Throughout the year, several search terms related to corona were trending. From the end of January, the term “curfew” was often typed in. This was usually done in combination with the terms ‘statement’ and ‘self-declaration’. In October and November ‘testing for access’ was especially popular, even more so than in the summer.

The cold in January and February led to the much-used search for ‘snow radar’ in sixth place. And in seventh place is ‘Olympic Games’. Users were especially curious about the medal tally.

The new iPhone model was released in September and that resulted in eighth place. At number nine is the new Formula 1 commentator ‘Nelson Valkenburg’. That term was added to the list at the last minute, according to Google. Last week it was announced that he will replace Olav Mol as commentator. The list ends with ‘WhatsApp outage’. That was because on October 4, users wanted to know what was going on with the messaging app.

Corona dominated list in 2020

Compared to this year, many corona-related topics were trending in 2020. ‘Coronavirus’ and ‘RIVM’ then led the list. This was followed by ‘American elections’ and ‘Kobe Bryant’, the basketball legend who died in a helicopter crash.