What are people searching for during the coronavirus pandemic?

Google trends offer a window into people’s minds – even more so during a crisis, finds Lucy Anna Gray

Healthcare workers in New York, which has become the epicentre of the virus (Christianne Calderon)

Amid the horrors of the Covid-19 outbreak, we have witnessed a sense of community blossom around the world.

And in this globally shared experience, our similarities have become more evident than ever before.

In my specific area of journalism – audience insights – I look closely at what people are interested in and how those trends develop. One way of doing so is monitoring what people are searching for on Google.

When analysing this data, we see that much more unites us than divides us in our curiosity around this disease.

The related search terms to “coronavirus”​ have remained consistent over the past two weeks, with “update”, “cases”, “map” and “symptoms” among the most popular words to appear next to the name of the contagion.

However, which countries are googling the virus the most have changed. A week ago, Spain was the country searching the word “coronavirus” most; this week it has been Qatar, according to Google Trends. Qatar is now followed by Nepal, Spain and South Africa.

If we expand this analysis and look at whole questions, rather than just words, we see clear trends emerging.

When the outbreak first began, people were searching for hard facts about coronavirus. How did it start? What are the symptoms? As the crisis has developed and people have learnt more about the virus, the queries have become more evolved and varied.

Across the globe, people are understandably concerned about money. If we look at the US, some of the most prominent questions regard when the stimulus package will come, whether mortgages will be frozen, and whether people have to pay rent this month. In a poignant twist that says much about America’s controversial healthcare system, people have also been asking whether furloughed workers will keep their health insurance.

In these uncertain times, newspapers have a duty to educate and inform the public. How we go about that is decided by people like me, who keep a keen eye on what our readers are worried about, what they do and don’t know, and what they think is missing from the publications they’re currently accessing. Then we take those insights to editors across other departments, who wrestle with these questions from the point of view of news, opinion, lifestyle, culture and more. Throughout the pandemic, I’ll be paying attention to your search patterns so you can access the content you want and need.

Yours,

Lucy Anna Gray

US audience editor