intensity of COVID-19 The spread during the second boom earlier this year is reflected in internet search queries conducted in the country, including ‘Covid Vaccine Near Me’, ‘Covid Test Near Me’, ‘Food Delivery Near Me’, ‘Oxygen Cylinder Near Me’. Me’ and ‘Covid’. Hospital Near Me is one of the most searched queries in the ‘Near Me’ category in India during 2021 Google,
Similarly, in the ‘How to’ category, the top five search queries were: ‘How to register for COVID vaccine’, ‘How to download vaccination certificate’, ‘How to increase oxygen level’, ‘How to link PAN’ AADHAAR, and ‘How to make oxygen at home’.
A shortage of oxygen cylinders gripped Covid-19 patients during the second surge that lasted from late March to June. Notably, peak interest in most of these COVID-related words occurred during April, but search terms continued to top the charts even at the end of the year.
In comparison, during 2020, the top five ‘near me’ search queries were: ‘food shelters near me’, ‘covid testing near me’, ‘cracker shops near me’, ‘liquor shops near me’ and ‘night. Near the shelter of ‘me’.
In the ‘how to’ category, the top five search queries last year were: ‘how to make paneer’, ‘how to increase immunity’, ‘how to make dalgona coffee’, ‘how to link PAN card’ aadhaar card, and ‘How to make sanitizer at home’.
Back in April, in line with the nationwide spike in cases, search queries representing people looking for Covid-19 essentials such as remdesivir injections, RT-PCR tests, oxygen cylinders and hospital beds had increased on Google.
For example, this year’s third-ranked ‘How to’ query – ‘How to increase oxygen level’ – saw a lower peak in last year’s top ‘How to’ query – ‘How to make cheese’.
The numbers on Google Search Trends indicate search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for a given region and time. A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the post. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. According to Google, the suffix “near me” for the search term indicates an “indication of intent” by those running that query on the search engine.
“This year the ‘near me’ searches were particularly suggestive for the year in which Covid Vaccines, Covid Trials, Covid Hospitals were filling the top slots. The search for oxygen cylinders and CT scans also saw a boom as people battled the tide of the pandemic during the year. Besides this, questions were also raised on food delivery, tiffin services and takeout restaurants looking to ride out the intermittent lockdown,” it said in a statement.
Although among the overall search queries, cricket continued to top the charts in India, with ‘Indian Premier League’ and ‘ICC T20 World Cup’ split by ‘Covin’. Fourth and fifth place were the ‘Euro Cup’ and ‘Tokyo Olympics’ respectively.
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