Here's what people Googled

this year as they tried to make

sense of 2020

By Clare Duffy, CNN Business

Updated 0801 GMT (1601 HKT) December 9, 2020
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New York (CNN Business)What do Animal Crossing, "WAP," sourdough bread,
Timothée Chalamet and "social distancing date ideas" all have in common?
They were all popular Google searches in 2020.
Google (GOOGL) released its annual "Year in Search" list Wednesday. The list
acts as a sort of chronicle of the decades worth of newsworthy things that took
place during this one weird year. The list features the year's top trending
searches, which had a high spike in traffic over a sustained period in 2020
compared to 2019.
As people tried to make sense of the overwhelming barrage of news in 2020,
global queries including the word "why" — such as "why is the NBA
postponed?" and "why is toilet paper sold out?" — were searched more often
than in any year before, Google said in a video released along with the list
Wednesday.
Unsurprisingly, "election results" and "coronavirus" topped the US trending
searches list, as people sought answers about the deadly pandemic and a
crucial election that took longer than usual to play out because of the pandemic.
Also among the top 10 on the list: Zoom, Naya Rivera, Chadwick Boseman
and PlayStation 5.
Google also broke out top US trending searches in a number of categories.
The "news" category includes queries about stimulus checks, the payments
given to millions of Americans as part of the $2.2 trillion congressional coronavirus
relief package passed in March; Iran, whose general Qasem Soleimani was killed
in a US airstrike in early January, setting off a period of tension between the
two countries; and murder hornets, the giant invasive bugs spotted in
Washington state earlier this year.
The news category also includes two of the year's major natural
disasters: Hurricane Laura, a Category 4 storm that caused death and
destruction in Louisiana and Texas, and the Australia fires, which devastated
large swaths of the country and killed an estimated 3 billion animals.

The best apps of 2020 prove just what a long, strange year it's been

Elsewhere, the list highlights some of this year's prominent losses: basketball
star Kobe Bryant, trailblazing Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and
renowned guitarist Eddie Van Halen, as well as George Floyd, whose death
sparked a nationwide reckoning and movement for racial justice.
 Despite all of the hardships of 2020, people stepped up to help one another in
some extraordinary ways. The "how to help" section of the list shows people
searched for ways to help the Black Lives Matter movement, Yemen, Beirut and
someone having a panic attack. People also looked into how to donate blood,
plasma and N95 masks, among other things, during the health crisis.
And, of course, the top trending searches list also features some of the ways
we coped and kept ourselves entertained this year. Popular searches included
"drive in movie theater near me," "virtual EDC rave," "how to cut men's hair at
home", and "how to make hand sanitizer."
And lest we leave out any of the other events that contributed to 2020's chaos,
here are a few other things not yet mentioned that also appeared on the list:
the US crackdown on TikTok, Elon Musk's baby, stock market madness, a boom in
popularity of whipped coffee, online school, a number of companies making
Juneteenth a corporate holiday, "The Last Dance" documentary series chronicling
Michael Jordan's career, "Parasite" making history as the first non-English
language film to win the Oscar for best picture, and the list goes on.

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Daily coronavirus death tolls reach record highs as countries

scramble to expand testing and rescue hospital systems