Today, December 31st, I’m celebrating ten years of this Christmas tradition of humorously “analyzing” search trends in Spain. In these 3,650 days, there hasn’t been a single year that hasn’t surprised me with this data. We humans are pretty damn weird.
To keep the tradition, you can review year by year from 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Google, as every year, slightly changes the way it shows us this data.
Some years have left out interesting data, but this 2024 has not been the case.
Using large typography, it gives special relevance to the video summary (I’ll leave it at the end of the article) and this year it has categorized the information into 4 main blocks: Information, entertainment, sports, and questions.
Let’s look at each of them, although as always, I’ll focus on analyzing the most curious things.
Information
Google categorizes this block into 3 groups: Current events, politics, and science. I’m very glad for science, which is not usually well represented in these trends, but this year the current events and science block is closely linked to climate change, hurricanes, and, of course, to the most tragic and sad event in our country, with the DANA.
News
- Precipitation alert
- Excessive heat alert
- Kate Middleton
- Olympic medal count
- DANA
- Valencia fire
- European Union election results
- U.S. elections
- Leap day 2024
- Elisa Mouliaá
It’s not surprising that precipitation, excessive heat, fires, DANA, appear in these current events blocks.
Our human survival instinct is deeply rooted. News of this caliber greatly impacts people’s lives.
What’s surprising is that the impact of our society on our environment continues to be denied, but that’s a lost debate. Our reality is shaped by our preconceived ideas. So a belief is more powerful than anything else.
Planet Earth demands global solutions from us, but we continue in geopolitical struggles and over resources, fictitious territories, disparaged flags. I tend to be a positive person, but there are things that are just bloody ridiculous, you know?
It catches my attention that Kate Middleton sneaks into third position (in Spain), I understand due to the news about her health condition and cancer. Curious morbid interest.
Elections, whether local, European, or American, are usually well placed in these rankings.
And in the last position, Elisa Mouliaá, actress, and the first woman to file a complaint against Íñigo Errejón. It’s normal for something about this case to slip into these rankings due to the media impact it produced.
Politics
- Pedro Sánchez
- Puigdemont
- Errejón
- Alvise Pérez
- Trump
- Kamala Harris
- Ábalos
- PPE
- Biden
- The party’s over
I don’t usually dwell much on politics, because the results of this list don’t usually surprise me. Yes, it does catch my attention that in Spain there are so many searches related to American politics.
Trump, Kamala Harris, Biden. The impact of American politics in our country is notable.
I can understand it at an international political level, but that ordinary people are the ones searching for these terms so much surprises me.
Science
- Precipitation alert
- Excessive heat alert
- DANA
- Progress on climate change goals
- Hurricane Milton Florida
- Wind alert
- Floods in eastern Catalonia
- Floods in central-eastern Spain
- Solar eclipse
- Storm alert
I understand that particular investigations on some topics don’t appear reflected in these rankings, and almost everything that appears linked to science deals with the impact of nature on our lives: precipitation, hurricanes, excessive heat, DANA, floods, storm alerts, etc.
I think we’re not very good at making predictions, and as Nassim Nicholas Taleb points out in his work on the black swan, the impact of the highly improbable, we don’t know a black swan exists until we see it.
It saddens me that the media focus so much, after any tragedy, on topics that don’t necessarily help people: political issues, royalty visiting the site of the tragedy, etc.
Is it really necessary? Is this incessant repetition of news, which I understand generates attraction and traffic for them, helping anyone? I see little reflection on the real need to give it so much prominence.
But I remain positive, I still see improvements in our society. I won’t fall into seeing everything as bleak this year, we are better, we have a longer life expectancy, better health systems, education, access to information.
I’m sure the mass media will change their stance someday. 😉
Entertainment
As every year, I don’t see much point in dwelling on these entertainment blocks.
I’ll reflect the top five positions in each group, because this year I liked the classification between TV shows, series, and movies.
In other years they gave us everything mixed together and this allows us to see the entertainment interests of our dear society in a much more granular way.
TV Shows
Series
Cinema
I’m not reflecting the sports block, but I recommend you go to the original source on Google Trends out of curiosity. Sports in Spain are highly searched, always slipping into the rankings, especially football.
This year I liked that they reflected athletes (non-football) and other sporting events.
And to finish, I’ll focus on my favorite block in the whole world. The questions of why, how, and what is.
Our existential reasons, our primary doubts, all the crap we search for that reflects us as people.
Questions our Society Asks Google
Why?
- Why are they booing Cucurella
- Why are farmers protesting
- Why is urine black
- Why has the Netherlands been disqualified
- Why does Mbappé speak Spanish
- Betis – Getafe postponed why
- Why has Valencia flooded
- Why did the plane crash in the Andes
- Why is Gibraltar part of the United Kingdom
- Why are they booing Kroos
Do you realize that 50% of these searches are all linked to sports? Starting with Cucurella, up to why Mbappé speaks Spanish. Fascinating.
The one about the farmers’ protest seems quite reasonable to me. They have many reasons to do so. Short answer: due to the agricultural policies of the European Union, the government, and the autonomous communities.
The one about black urine, when I read the trend, worried me a bit. But pulling the thread of the search, I think it’s incentivized by Society of the Snow, the movie about the plane crash in the Andes. Thank goodness!
The Gibraltar one doesn’t surprise me that it’s appeared in these trends, as it’s linked to various news related to this situation.
How?
- How is monkeypox transmitted
- How is Spain doing
- How to vote in the European elections
- How are the elections in Venezuela going
- How to tune HD channels
- How to help DANA Valencia
- How are the European elections going
- How are the elections in the USA going
- How to claim mortgage expenses
- How does technology influence music
The “How is Spain doing” always amuses me in how we search on Google. Without a doubt, we search in a very natural way and Google understands this perfectly, giving us the answers.
In general, it’s linked to football, of course. Therefore, it shows us in the SERP the block with the results of the matches and the current standings at the moment you do the search.
After the experience of Coronavirus, I’m not surprised that monkeypox appears in the first position. How the elections are going in Europe, in Venezuela, in the USA, a classic in these rankings. What would we do without Google to summarize political trends for us?
But something that I definitely have to highlight and makes me regain my faith in Humanity is the question: “How to help DANA Valencia”.
All of Spain rallied around this terrible event and I believe the help has been impressive. It’s beautiful to see that people remain the most important thing. Beyond the fake news and negative events linked to this accident, the fact that help is the most important thing seems precious and hopeful for our future.
By the way, at that time it seemed like a very good website, where all the different help links shared by Jaime Rodríguez de Santiago on his Kaizen podcast are gathered, created by Cris Carrascosa: DANA Help.
And my friend Mónica Saavedra, from Galicia, is collecting for schools she’s in direct contact with. 🙏
I liked that the latest trend is the influence of technology on music. We’ve experienced an incredible transformation in recent decades.
What is?
- What is a DANA
- What are pellets
- What is mewing
- What is All eyes on Rafah
- What is pansexual
- What is a hostile takeover
- What is a plumber
- What is Essure
- What is polyurethane
- What is tradwife
The DANA, as we see and it’s normal, has had a strong impact on all search trends this year.
I live in Galicia and here pellets are well-known. So I’m not sure why it’s the second trend this year.
As I live a bit detached from social networks, I miss out on things and viral topics, like the case of mewing which I had to investigate what the hell it was about.
A posture to take better selfies where the jaw looks defined. We live in a very complex era with this image projection thing. One step forward, one step back. Trends like the DANA help make me regain faith in Humanity, but this crap inclines me to the opposite side.
The interesting thing is that these people who live by and for their image on social networks really believe in this. If it makes them happy, who am I to criticize them?
Another case of viral content on social networks, and this time from the conflict between Israel and Palestine: “All eyes on Rafah”, has been an AI-created image showing Palestinian displaced camps with that phrase which translates to: “All eyes on Rafah”. According to this BBC news article it has been shared by 47 million users on Instagram.
Why pansexuality became a trend, I have no idea. It’s a known term within the various sexual identities. I imagine it comes from several public figures like: bullfighter Mario Alcalde, Alejandro Tommasi, etc., declaring themselves as pansexual.
I also don’t know why the profession of plumber (worker who installs and repairs lighting installations) jumped as a trend; Essure, is a permanent non-hormonal contraceptive method, I understand it jumped as a trend due to news related to serious side effects it had on more than a thousand women in Spain and that Gonzo, from Salvados gave them a voice on his program.
The tradwives issue, I think also stems from that social media phenomenon where many women extol the concept of more traditional marriage, in a housewife role for their husband. Apparently it’s a trend on many Instagram and TikTok accounts. I won’t open this can of worms. To each their own, as long as it doesn’t harm anyone.
I understand it can be controversial (and I want to believe it’s a real stance, and not a viralization technique), because the last decade has (finally!) allowed important advances in women’s roles, and although there’s still a lot of machismo, I think we’ve improved a lot in generational terms.
Reflections
As every year, I end the post with Google’s video. Their marketing team knows how to use narrative very well and give us a very emotional inspirational video.
We shouldn’t be a “hater”, we’ve reached the end of the year and we should celebrate with affection everything we’ve achieved and experienced.
In the video, very focused on the U.S. as always, a couple of searches for Spanish athletes sneak in with the end of the Spain’s Eurocup, Lamine Yamal’s goal and with Nadal’s farewell.
This article is a reminder of my 10 years as a freelancer. With its ups and downs, it hasn’t been an easy path, but I’m very happy to be where I am at this moment.
For years, I’ve been using a Notion to reflect my goals for each year, gather my aphorisms, travels, meditations, and resources that bring me stability, tranquility, and “order” to the mental chaos we can have at different times.
I’m not very fond of social media, but from time to time you come across some interesting content that makes you reflect.
These days I came across an Instagram reel of a Hindu comedian: Massod Boomgaard, and I really liked his reflection:
I found it funny because it focuses on not being so hard on yourself, recognizing things that are out of your control, enjoying the journey, forgetting about others’ expectations; to hell with New Year’s resolutions, and if the next 2025 is a disaster, don’t worry so much, relax and flow.
I know it seems easy to say and appears to be self-help guru talk, but there’s a lot of philosophy and spirituality behind this humorous reflection.
We compare ourselves a lot with others, we set unrealistic expectations and we get frustrated if we don’t achieve these goals.
We don’t listen to our own body, to our emotions, we don’t stop to reflect a little, on what we do and especially why.
This year I sent a video to my clients on December 25th and shared a reflection on current society with them.
Don’t you feel that it has accelerated to unsuspected levels? Following Johann Hari, our attention has been hijacked by technology.
For me, these dates are the perfect opportunity to slow down, consider where we’re heading, and recalculate our path.
As Seneca says:
“If you don’t know which port you’re sailing to, no wind is favorable”.
I hope you can be with your surroundings, friends, and family, and truly enjoy. Nothing else really makes sense.
My best wishes for 2025. I hope to continue this tradition next year. And if I don’t, to hell with it! Life is constant change.
We have to learn to integrate it into our mental schemes. You’ll tell me if you manage it. I’ll try.
Live long and prosper!
