The Swiss voice in the world since 1935
Top stories
Stay in touch with Switzerland

War and sport dominate Swiss Google searches in 2022

Collection of rockets
Police officers look at fragments of Russian rockets that hit Kharkiv, Ukraine, on December 3 Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

The war in Ukraine and sporting events had people heading for search engine Google more than anything else this year. The search terms of the year were “Ukraine”, followed by “WM 2022” for the football World Cup, currently underway in Qatar, and the online game “Wordle”.

Euro 2021 and Covid remained dominant terms, Google announced on Wednesday. With the beginning of the war in Ukraine in February, the search interest in the country and current events there increased.

The top ten search trends in Switzerland this year also included tennis star “Novak Djokovic” and the “Australian Open” tennis tournament. The Serb was denied entry and thus participation in the tournament due to a lack of Covid vaccination.

More

The list also included the European football tournament “Nations League”, “Jeffrey Dahmer” (a US serial murderer who was the subject of a Netflix series), “Olympia 2022”, “Queen Elizabeth II” (who died in September after 70 years on the throne) and “Johnny Depp” (an American actor whose court case with ex-wife Amber Heard was hard to avoid).

Google said the most common questions asked by users included “How long is omicron contagious for?”, “What is an oligarch?” and “Why is Russia attacking Ukraine?”.

More
External Content

Popular Stories

News

Philippe Lazzarini has overseen UNRWA since 2020.

More

Foreign Affairs

UNRWA boss Lazzarini to step down in March 2026

This content was published on Philippe Lazzarini will step down as head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) at the end of his term in March, he announced on Thursday.

Read more: UNRWA boss Lazzarini to step down in March 2026
Gösgen NPP outage darkens profit prospects for Axpo and Alpiq

More

Swiss Politics

Outage extended at Swiss nuclear plant

This content was published on The Gösgen nuclear power plant in northwestern Switzerland will be out of service for six months. It has not been connected to the grid since late May.

Read more: Outage extended at Swiss nuclear plant

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR