The 2016 Google Search Map of India (Image: Soumyadip Choudhury/News18.com)
Social is fast becoming the source for information and news, but search still keeps us searching. According to Chartbeat, a web analytics company, in the Asia-Pacific region 46% of website pageviews still come for search, compared to 29% that come via social.
While Google does release a filtered annual report listing what was trending in 2016 across categories but manually sifting through Google Trends for the same period throws up quite a different picture.
India’s 2016 searches on Google paints it as a download nation.
The term “download” was the most searched for across most states in the year, pushing 2015’s top search term “facebook” to the third spot.
Freedom 251, the Rs 251 smartphone, that was touted as the world’s cheapest, was the fastest rising search term across most states. Kerala also wanted its Freedom 251s, but not as much as “tottentz2”. Similarly Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh were searching more and more for “filmywap 2016”.
Curiously, Nagaland’s most popular search terms made us confuse it for Tamil Nadu. This is either an error on the part of Google the people of Nagaland have developed a strong affinity for all things Tamil.
The interactive table and maps below reveal what the country searched for in the year that is at its fag end.
State | Rising (?) | Top (?) |
---|---|---|
ALL | freedom 251 | download |
Andaman and Nicobar Islands | ahok | download |
Andhra Pradesh | janatha garage | youtube |
Arunachal Pradesh | (Not enough data) | (Not enough data) |
Assam | freedom 251 | download |
Bihar | jio | download |
Chandigarh | filmywap 2016 | download |
Chhattisgarh | freedom 251 | download |
Dadra and Nagar Haveli | freedom 251 | download |
Daman and Diu | sarkari result | video |
Delhi | freedom 251 | download |
Goa | pratyusha banerjee | goa |
Gujarat | freedom 251 | download |
Haryana | filmywap 2016 | |
Himachal Pradesh | filmywap 2016 | download |
Jammu and Kashmir | freedom 251 | download |
Jharkhand | freedom 251 | download |
Karnataka | freedom 251 | download |
Kerala | torrentz2 | |
Lakshadweep | (Not enough data) | (Not enough data) |
Madhya Pradesh | freedom 251 | download |
Maharashtra | sairat | download |
Manipur | empsconline | download |
Meghalaya | fmovies | youtube |
Mizoram | freedom 251 | download |
Nagaland | karuvoolam | |
Odisha | freedom 251 | download |
Puducherry | freedom 251 | tamil |
Punjab | filmywap 2016 | download |
Rajasthan | freedom 251 | download |
Sikkim | euro 2016 | |
Tamil Nadu | remo | tamil |
Telangana | download | download |
Tripura | freedom 251 | tripura |
Uttar Pradesh | freedom 251 | download |
Uttarakhand | freedom 251 | download |
West Bengal | freedom 251 | download |
2016 GOOGLE SEARCH MAP OF INDIA (Top Searches)
(The most popular search queries)
2016 GOOGLE SEARCH MAP OF INDIA (Rising Searches)
(Search queries with the biggest increase in search frequency since the last time period)