In 2022, Americans turned to Google for local answers that mirrored that year's biggest national conversations about the economy, public health and midterm elections, according to the latest Year of Search report. , an annual round-up of people, places and locations. the things that caught the attention of internet users and were most noticed on the internet in 2022.
The report, released earlier this month, highlights trending topics across a number of key categories including news, celebrities, movies, hotspots and more, and provides rankings of popular searches for everyone.
In descending chronological order, the top five searches for the Google category "near me" in the US are: gas prices near me, home COVID test near me, voting near me, early voting near me, and PCR testing near me. Questions about COVID recalls, n95 masks and simply "where to vote" are among the top 10 terms listed in the same category, along with searches for Easter egg hunts and local concerts.
According to Google, the majority of Americans searching for topics "near them" were interested in gasoline prices in 2022 after Russia's intervention in Ukraine led to higher gas prices in the United States. Pump prices rose across the country, reaching $5.02 a gallon in the summer, prompting President Joe Biden to seek a three-month exemption from federal gasoline taxes as a proposed means of combating rising costs.
After months of strong numbers, the average price of gasoline in the United States is down from a year ago when it was $3.33 a gallon in early December, according to the American Automobile Association. A week ago, the national average fell below what Americans were paying in Ukraine before the war.
Requests for home testing for COVID-19 and PCR tests — the kind given by healthcare professionals in doctor's offices or health clinics — ranked second and fifth boosters, respectively, on Google's list of most popular searches for "me" in the United States in 2022 Injections ranked sixth on the search engine list.
It came after Americans faced multiple waves of virus cases with the introduction of new variants such as Omicron and its subvariants BA.5 and more recently BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 and the Biden government took action. expand access to COVID testing in healthcare facilities and at home.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration began approving new booster shots in early 2022 to supplement the original COVID-19 vaccines and provide better protection against the new strains. Both agencies continued to work. updated advice on when and who should get booster shots throughout the year.
Questions about where and where to vote early also topped Google's search term list. That seems appropriate given that November's midterm elections brought in a slew of new leaders across the state and strong partisan control of the US Senate and state . House of Representatives. News of gubernatorial and congressional campaigns across the country have become the focus of conversations in the press and on social media in the months leading up to Election Day.
