COLUMBUS, Ohio — As 2023 comes to an end, Google’s “Year in Search” reveals a lot about what happened in the last 12 months, and in Columbus, the top local searches reflected some major events.
From the release of the "Barbie" movie to the Eras Tour to the change in temperatures, many have turned to Google for answers to their burning questions.
Here are some local statistics from Columbus showing what was widely searched for and what was popular among area residents:
“The Last of Us” made it as the top trending TV show in Columbus with “The Night Agent,” “The Golden Bachelor,” “Daisy Jones & the Six” and “Shrinking” following.
The top 5 trending “tour” searches were as follows: Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour, Drake’s “It’s All a Blue Tour,” Beyonce’s “Renaissance World Tour,” Future and Friends: One Big Party Tour and Aerosmith’s final tour, “Peace Out: The Farewell Tour.”
After professional soccer player Lionel Messi signed with Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami earlier this year, his name was widely searched, and specifically in Columbus, “Cincinnati vs Inter Miami” made the list as a top trending search.
As for people searching for places and things “near me,” here’s what Google found were the five top searches:
“Air quality near me” landed in the top search spot, after a summer full of air quality alerts in central Ohio due to wildfires in Canada. Many sensitive groups like kids, older adults and those with health conditions were warned against being outside due to the smoke or told to wear an N95 mask due to the pollutant carryover.
The other top “near me” searches include pawn shop near me, pedicure near me, pantry near me and temp services near me.
What about sports? Some of the trending games or matches were PSG vs Al Nassr, Logan Paul vs Dillon Danis, Cincinnati vs Inter Miami, KSI vs Tommy Fury and Rangers vs Diamondbacks.
Across the country, the top searched movies were “Barbie,” “Oppenheimer,” “Jawan,” “Sound of Freedom” and “John Wick: Chapter 4.”
A lot has happened this year to make the news. Out of everything happening, the top five news searches in the United States are the war in Israel and Gaza, the “Titanic submarine,” Turkey earthquake, and Hurricanes Hilary and Idalia.
For a full list of top searches this year, click here.