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Wordle was Marlborough’s biggest Google search trend in 2022.
Only the most addictive of word games could surpass Marlburians’ interest in major world events such as the football World Cup and the Russo-Ukrainian War.
But Wordle was the breakout Google search query from Marlburians in 2022. Their interest in the new online word game was pretty consistent from February throughout the year, according to Google Trends data.
And it was not just Marlburians addicted, as it was also the top “rising search query” worldwide, meaning it was rarely searched for in 2021 but suddenly very popular in 2022.
Aside from the normal top searches, such as Facebook, TradeMe, Stuff, and MetService, global events were clearly top of mind for Marlburians, with rising search queries at least 1000% more popular than the previous year, Google Trends data shows.
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Ukraine was the second-biggest rising search topic from Marlburians. Interest skyrocketed in late February when Russia first invaded, but dropped by late March, although Marlburians continued to search for news on Ukraine throughout the year.
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Defence Minister Peeni Henare is the first Government minister to visit Ukraine since the war with Russia broke out.
The FIFA World Cup was a top rising search topic in Marlborough, with a spike during the competition in November and December. Also high on the list were the men’s T20 cricket World Cup and the Indian Premier League cricket competition.
Other popular online games were Quordle and Heardle, both inspired by Wordle, and also quiz game Blooket.
Another rising search topic was “tag cloud”, also known as a word cloud or wordle, which was a type of visual representation for word-related data. It was unclear if searches for tag cloud were connected to the popularity of Wordle, or Marlburians were just really getting into data graphics.
The Chemist Warehouse Blenheim had a large increase in Google search queries in 2022, likely because it did not exist prior to November 2021. People searching for the new store were also searching for a cream, pill, vitamin or perfume, search data showed.
Brya Ingram/Stuff
Covid was rampant in 2022. Vehicles queue for Blenheim’s Horton Park testing station on Redwood St on February 23.
And there were plenty of Covid-related searches last year, with popular search phrases such as “coronavirus disease 2019”, “covid isolation rules”, and “locations of interest”.
Other rising search phrases from Marlburians were “trump latest”, “sky go”, “google classroom”, “travel visa”, “electric battery”, and “road closures”.
