The top Google trends for 2021 are out, and they have revealed quite a lot about what the UK has been up to this year.
Offering a snapshot of what the nation was most curious about, the searches range from the topical to the outright bizarre. The top trends reveal which events, news stories and topics had the nation gripped, with terms like “Euros” and “Bridgerton” trending highly.
With the pandemic very much continuing into this year, many used the internet, humour and memes to get us through yet another difficult 12 months.
Here’s a look at what the UK was Googling throughout 2021:
Memes
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“Matt Hancock memes” was the most searched for meme term as the former health secretary, unfortunately, found himself at the butt of many jokes this year.
In May, Hancock gifted us with meme-worthy content as he literally ran away from reporters. And in June, when he was caught on camera kissing his aide Gina Coladangelo, the memes just kept on coming.
The best Matt Hancock meme so far. pic.twitter.com/BTU1PwbhZ4
— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) July 1, 2021
The Four Lads meme came 3rd in the list of searched-for memes. The meme that depicts four young men in extremely tight jeans outside a bar sold for £1 million as an NFT in May this year.
Behind the lads, in 4th spot, was “Bernie Sanders chair memes”. Sanders captivated the internet in January with his iconic mittens and unbothered cross-legged pose at President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
"This could have been an email." #BernieSanders pic.twitter.com/NaGYQwY4bU
— Laman (@lamangayidova) January 20, 2021
Thanks to TikTok, sea shanties went viral this year and this was reflected in the Google search terms, as “sea shanty meme” appeared 8th in the meme’s list.
Rather less sensitively, “ââPrince Philip memes” were the 5th most searched for memes. The Duke of Edinburgh died on 9 April this year.
Food
The age-old debate about whether Jaffa Cakes are cake or a biscuit raged on into 2021. So many of us asked Google “is a jaffa cake a cake or a biscuit?” that it came out 6th in ‘or” searches on the search engine.
An old relic of lockdown 1.0 – banana bread – remained a winner as it came out top on the most searched recipes.
Entertainment
It appeared we all needed a heavy dose of entertainment to get us through the year and that was also reflected in the trending terms Google saw.
Collectively the nation thirsted over Regé-Jean Page’s character, the Duke of Hastings, in the Netflix series Bridgerton, as it trended second behind the Korean survival drama Squid Game in trending TV.
Remarkably, lyrics to Adele’s Easy On Me were the second most searched of 2021, despite the single only being released in October.
