Google has unveiled its Year in Search 2021 lists, which showcases the people, topics, events and places that captured Singapore’s attention this year. The trending searches reflected the strength of Singaporeans in times of adversity and signaled hope for healing and recovery as we emerged from the second year of the pandemic.

Journeying through a year of healing

It is no surprise that the pandemic remains as one of the top trending searches with the prevention of COVID-19 (#6 Trending Searches) high on the list. Nationwide, we saw Singaporeans rally together to encourage the community, especially the more vulnerable, to get vaccinated. This includes programmes like mobile vaccination clinics in the heartlands to ensure the elderly are protected against the virus. 

A nation heals in solidarity 

Yet, the pandemic was not the only moment of adversity that brought Singaporeans together in solidarity. 

When the tragic Tanjong Pagar accident (#1 Trending Singapore News) took place, there was an outpouring of sympathy for the victims of the accident, with many sharing messages of support for a victim who suffered burn injuries while trying to save her boyfriend in the crash. The River Valley high school incident (#2 Trending Singapore News) also saw many alumni and families stand in  solidarity with the teachers and students of the school. 

Singaporeans also showed empathy to events taking place in Myanmar (#3 International Trending Searches) and Afghanistan (#4 International Trending Searches). It was through such moments of adversity that we saw the strength of humanity as communities came together to support each other. Closer to home, we continued to see strong interest in the National Day Parade (#8 Trending Singapore News), a significant moment annually with this year’s theme, “Together, Our Singapore Spirit” reflecting Singaporeans’ unity and can-do spirit through the pandemic.

Singaporeans heal through a common love of the games

Like previous years, our love for sports resonated through the top trending searches. It reflects the ability of sporting events as a platform to boost morales, where people cheered for the same teams and tuned in to major sports events such as UEFA Euro 2021 (#1 Trending Searches, #1 Trending Sports Events) and the English Premier League (#3 Trending Searches, #4 Trending Sports Events).

One such notable event is the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games (#5 Trending Searches, #1 Trending International News) which took place amid much fanfare after a year-long postponement. 

Singaporeans showed their support for Olympic swimmer Joseph Schooling’s (#1 Trending Singapore Personalities, #1 Trending Olympic Searches) by following his journey through the Olympics, together with other local athletes like table tennis players, Yu Mengyu (#2 Trending Singapore Personalities, #2 Trending Athletes) and Feng Tianwei (#6 Trending Singapore Personalities, #7 Trending Athletes).  To get everyone ready for the action, Google compiled a handy guide which includes daily recap videos and top news to ensure that sports enthusiasts are brought up to speed with every exciting moment in the Olympic Games.

Taking time to rest and heal mentally

With travel restrictions still firmly in place before Vaccinated Travel Lanes were announced, Singaporeans sought respite on cruises to nowhere with cruise lines like Royal Caribbean (#1 Trending activities and places in Singapore) and Dream Cruise (#3 Trending activities and places in Singapore). 

Back on land, Museum of Ice Cream (#4 Trending activities and places in Singapore) found its  home in Singapore, and instantly became a popular photo spot for locals. Popular mainstays like the Singapore Flyer (#8 Trending activities and places in Singapore) and River Safari (#10 Trending activities and places in Singapore) also saw an uptick in local visitors, and we saw many checking in for staycations at the newly-opened Dusit Thani Laguna Singapore too (#6 Trending activities and places in Singapore). 

Angeline Leow, Head of Communications for Google Singapore, said: “2021 has been a year of healing, as Singaporeans find creative ways to recover and regain our momentum. Google searches are indicative of the macro trends in Singapore and give us a glimpse of the local and global happenings the nation cares deeply about. With more content and internet users online, there’s more need to organise information than ever before so we’ll continue to invest in AI to give people new ways to search and explore information through voice, images and videos while helping people better evaluate the credibility of information they find online.”

Every day, Google sends visitors to well over 100 million different websites, and every month, Google connects people with more than 120 million businesses that don’t have websites, by enabling phone calls, driving directions and local foot traffic.