Lockdown 4.0 Emerged as Top Trending Search Term on Google During May, ‘Coronavirus’ Query Dropped

Lockdown 4.0 was the top trending search term overall in India during May, Google revealed while detailing search trends on the coronavirus outbreak in the country. The search giant also saw over 1,800 percent growth in interest for query “coronavirus lockdown zones Delhi” over the month. The country imposed the national lockdown on March 24 to limit the spread of COVID-19. Since it completed three phases until May 17 and entered its fourth phase on May 18, a large number of people used Google to understand the fresh guidelines issued by the government.

Google said that the term “Lockdown 4.0” spiked over 3,150 percent in India during May, followed by the second top trending term “Eid Mubarak” that spiked over 2,650 percent. The term “coronavirus” dropped to 12th most searched topic overall from the third most searched topic in India during April. Search interest for coronavirus was also half the monthly volume for April. Nevertheless, it was still five times more searched than cricket — the sport that has a massive interest in the country, both offline and online, and is a highly searched topic on the Web.

The top trending related topic for coronavirus on Google was “vaccine” that saw an increase of over 190 percent in May. Google said vaccine-related searches reached a new record high since 2004 during the month of May, with a daily peak was recorded on May 6. The query “Italy coronavirus vaccine” also spiked over 750 percent. This shows that several people searched on Google to find details about the coronavirus vaccine that is still in the works and is yet to reach the mass-testing stage.

Which disease is related to coronavirus — a trending coronavirus-related question
In addition to trending search queries, Google said that there were some trending questions for coronavirus on its search engine from India in May. “Which disease is related to coronavirus” was dominating the list of those questions, followed by “where in China coronavirus first identified” and “can asymptomatic people spread coronavirus”.

Goa was the state with the highest search interest for coronavirus over May, followed by Meghalaya and Chandigarh. Interestingly, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Delhi weren't among the top 10 states ranked by search interest for coronavirus despite the fact that these three are the leading states when it comes to active COVID-19 cases in the country.

Most searched films in May
The topic coronavirus dropped behind Film, Meaning, News, and Weather that all are consistently highly searched topics in India. The list of most searched films on Google during May was dominated by crime thriller Web series Paatal Lok. Tamil legal drama film Ponmagal Vandhal also reached the second spot, while Tipu Sultan movie was the third most searched film on the search engine. The latter, however, doesn't have any official presence on the box office.

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