Also in the “How to” category, the top 5 searches were: “How to register for the Covid vaccine”, “How to download the vaccination certificate”, “How to increase the oxygen content”, “How to link PAN with AADHAAR ”, and ‘How to make oxygen at home’.

During the second surge, which lasted from late March to June, Covid-19 patients were affected by a shortage of oxygen bottles. Notably, the greatest interest in most of these Covid-related terms was seen in April, but the search terms continued to top the charts as the year ended.

In comparison, the five most frequent searches near me in 2020 were: “Grocery shelters near me”, “Covid test near me”, “Cracker shop near me”, “Liquor stores near me” and “Night shelters in nearby”. me’.

In the “How to” category, the top 5 searches last year were: “How to Paneer”, “How to Increase Immunity”, “How to Make Dalgona Coffee”, “How to Use a PAN Card linked to an Adhaar card and ‘How to make disinfectant at home’.

As early as April, in line with the nationwide surge in cases, searches on Google representing people looking for Covid-19 essentials such as remdesivir injections, RT-PCR tests, oxygen bottles and hospital beds had risen.

Compared to this year’s third-placed “How to” question – “How to raise oxygen level” – last year’s top How to question – “How to make paneer” – had a lower peak value.

The numbers in Google Search Trends represent search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for that region and time. A value of 100 is the highest popularity of the term. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. According to Google, the “near me” suffix on a search term indicates a “signal of intent” from those who perform that search query in the search engine.

“The search for ‘near me’ this year was particularly vivid for the year in which searches for Covid vaccine, Covid tests and the Covid hospital took the top positions. Oxygen cylinder searches and CT scans also spiked as people battled the tide of the pandemic as the year progressed. In addition, inquiries about grocery deliveries, Tiffin services and take-out restaurants also increased as people wanted to break the temporary bans, “a statement said.

However, among general searches, cricket continued to top the charts in India, with ‘Indian Premier League’ and ‘ICC T20 World Cup’ taking first and third place, broken down by ‘CoWIN’. ‘Euro Cup’ and ‘Olympic Games in Tokyo’ followed in fourth and fifth place.