If you missed them: Latest Google COVID-19 User Insights: 9th April 2020 | Latest Google COVID-19 User Insights: 17th April 2020 | Latest Google COVID-19 User Insights: 23rd April 2020

It’s time to find out what the nation has been searching for the past week. If you haven’t been keeping up to date with us, every week we share the latest search insights straight from Google.

Last week’s trends showed an increase in:

• Information about being furloughed 
• E-learning platforms 
• Pets at home 
• Activities to do with friends 
• DIY nails and self-tanning 
• Optimistic summer holidays 

This week, we’ve separated search trends into 5 different categories: 

• Informational. This is what information people are searching for to keep informed. 
• Employment. How people are making a living during the pandemic. 
• Emotional. How people are feeling.  
• Educational. What, and how, people are learning. 
• Activities. How people are filling their time in the lockdown. 

Let’s dive in shall we?

All Google Trends Data in this article is measured on a 0-100 scale. This figure doesn’t measure the search volume of the term, but the interest, with 100% signifying peak popularity in the term.

Informational 

Across the UK, people are still searching for what is allowed during the lockdown and when certain services will reopen. The term ‘when will _ reopen‘ hit 100% popularity on the 19th of April and has remained in high figures since.

It’s just unfortunate that the answer to most of these queries was “not yet”. But when they do, expect it to be busy. After McDonald’s reopened its first drive-thru in the UK, queues hit an astonishing 3 hours. I miss Chicken Nuggets, but not sure I’d wait that long personally.

Employment 

Unfortunately, much of the UK are relying on furlough payments to make ends meet. According to The Guardian, 70% of UK firms have furloughed their staff. These are uncertain times indeed.

The term ‘furlough claim’ increasing in popularity on the 20th of April, alongside government schemes and unemployment queries. Looks like there is mass uncertainty and money worries throughout the nation.

Emotional 

Some good news – UK residents are searching for new ways to keep themselves physically and mentally healthy during the lockdown. One of the searches involved a 100% peak in popularity for ‘vitamin d’, which can boost your immune system. 

It might also be to help combat the recent rain we’ve been facing after 2 weeks of glorious sunshine and natural vitamin d.

The UK also chose to come together and be inspired by the One World: Together At Home concert. This was a global campaign & digital concert designed to raise funds to support frontline healthcare workers and WHO (World Health Organization).

Educational

With the home schools still in session, people looked for varied educational needs, including private tutors, specialised training programs and ‘how to’ content on YouTube. These are for both school-based topics and for new skills, such as learning how to code.

‘Math tutor’ is one of the terms to have seen massive spikes in UK search interest, indicating a lot of parents might be feeling a little in over their heads trying to help with math exercises.

Activities

People in the UK are still getting good use from their daily exercise, continuing the pattern of increased walks and bike rides. However, it seems like people are getting tired of the usual roots they’re using, turning to Google to find local routes they might not have known about.

The search interest for ‘walks near me’ has been steadily growing over the past month and hit peak popularity on the 25th of April.

With most sporting events around the world cancelled or rescheduled, people have not been able to get their fix. So, in the absence of live sport, there’s been a big nostalgic increase in streaming old games.

The term ‘FA cup semi final’ recently hit peak popularity as an example of this. A nice little extra is that residents in France and Germany are also doing the same thing and searching for past football matches to watch. We’re united in unique ways.

Same time next week

Join us next week for the next instalment of Google search data. Stay in the loop by following us on Twitter or signing up to our newsletter.