Google puts out a list of the terms most searched by users each year. It offers information based on global searches and also by each country. The lists get broken into several sublists. Among others, these include news, people, athletes and babies.
The U.S. list is based on search results from the most used search engine in the country by far. Studies put its market share between 85% and 92%. The other two search engines used in the United States with any regularity are Microsoft’s Bing and Yahoo.
Google, founded in 1998, sits at the center of a holding company called Alphabet. Other pieces include YouTube and the Android operating system. Other often-used product Google offerings include Gmail and Google Maps. Some of these come preinstalled on smartphones, which has built a massive mobile user base.
Google’s dominance among the markets for its products has caught the attention of antitrust authorities in the United States and the European Union. Among other things, these authorities have objected to Google’s dominance of the online advertising market.
Driven primarily by Google’s search success, parent Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) has built a market capitalization of $1.23 trillion, which puts it fourth in the American markets behind only Apple ($2.13 trillion), Microsoft ($1.63 trillion) and Amazon ($1.60 trillion).
Alphabet’s revenue in the most recently reported quarter was posted at $46.2 billion, up 14% from the same period a year ago. Earnings per share rose to $16.40 from $10.12. Of the revenue, $26.3 billion came from Google’s search business.
The terms searched on Google over the course of 2020 show a cross-section of America’s interests. “Election results” tops the list. “Who is winning the election” ranks seventh.
“Coronavirus” takes second place. “Coronavirus update” takes fourth place, and “coronavirus symptoms” is in fifth position. In third, “Kobe Bryant,” among the most famous athletes in the world. He died in a helicopter crash on January 26. “Chadwick Boseman” ranks ninth, and the actor died of cancer on August 28.
These are the 10 most-searched terms on Google in the United States for 2020:
- Election results
- Coronavirus
- Kobe Bryant
- Coronavirus update
- Coronavirus symptoms
- Zoom
- Who is winning the election
- Naya Rivera
- Chadwick Boseman
- PlayStation 5
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