Google trends expert Justin Burr joins host Mason Paine to discuss the most popular search trends from February. They cover a wide range of topics, including the Grammys, Black History Month, Lunar New Year, Valentine’s Day, retro technology trends, credit score dating apps, and NBA All-Star weekend and more.
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Google February Trends Transcription
Announcer – 0:00: Mason Vera Paine.
Mason Paine – 0:02: February has wrapped up, so let’s check out this month’s most popular search trends with Google trends expert Justin Burr. Thanks for joining me, Justin.
Justin Burr – 0:10: Hey, thanks for having me.
Mason Paine – 0:11: So a lot of stuff has been happening so far, and we need a recap. And the first thing I need to know about what was trending on the Grammys.
Justin Burr – 0:19: Yeah. You know, February is a short month, but they crammed so much stuff into it. There’s so many things to talk about. So Grammys. Right. Do people still watch award shows? I don’t know. But looking at the Google trends, the top search red carpet looks, Taylor Swift number one. Boy genius number two. Billy Joel number three. Taylor Swift, always looking. H. She also won Grammy of the year, album of the year. She was also trending because she announced an upcoming album, tortured poets department. I already bought the vinyl on pre order. What’s up? A couple other trending things. Paris Hilton new album was trending. Has Miley Cyrus ever won a Grammy? Was trending because she won her first ever Grammys. So no, she hadn’t, but now she has. So I didn’t watch the Grammys, but I’ve heard gothings and there’s a lot of search interest in this.
Mason Paine – 1:10: Know, it’s crazy about the Miley Cyrus one. I was completely shocked. I really thought she won multiple Grammys.
Justin Burr – 1:17: No, for sure. And I think that was why it was one of the breakout searches because I think people were pretty shocked when she won that one, that it was her first because, yeah, she’s been making sweet tunes for a long time.
Mason Paine – 1:28: Right.
Justin Burr – 1:29: I don’t know. I guess she never got it.
Mason Paine – 1:30: Who else was I? Celine Dion. I thought that was fabulous that she was out there because she has that stiff person syndrome. So I know she limits her going outside a lot, but it was absolutely amazing. She looked gorgeous.
Justin Burr – 1:44: So good. Yeah. She’s had to cancel some tours and stuff. Right. She’s had some mobility issues.
Mason Paine – 1:49: Yeah.
Justin Burr – 1:49: Great. I’ve seen her in concert and it was.
Mason Paine – 1:54: Wow.
Justin Burr – 1:55: Yeah, dude, dude. Right before the pandemic hit, right in Brooklyn, got some tickets, last second, went in there and she just rocked. Was, it was so such, she’s such a performer, really captivates an audience, captivates the world. So it’s awesome.
Mason Paine – 2:12: When it comes to other culture stuff, what else was trending in February?
Justin Burr – 2:16: Yeah, there’s a few things. We’ve got Black History Month, we’ve got lunar new year, and we’ve also got some Valentine’s Day things. So some trending searches here. Why is black History Month in February. That was a breakout search in the United States, and there’s a lot of different answers, but some of the main points are that Lincoln and Douglas’s birthdays are in February, and there used to be black history week, and that was in February, and they extended it to an entire month. Who started the civil rights movement? And there’s no single person that I was actually the catalyst for that. But the ACP was a prominent organization in that movement, was also looking at the top searched black owned products by state. So people searching for black owned jewelry, black owned wine, black owned hair products in Illinois.
Justin Burr – 3:04: People, the top trending search in that category was black owned jewelry over the past month.
Mason Paine – 3:10: Oh, that is pretty nifty. Was there any specific brand, or it was just, like, an overall thing?
Justin Burr – 3:16: Yeah, I think people were just coming to Google to figure out how they can support black owned businesses. And, yeah, black owned jewelry was a big one. A couple other ones. Black owned clothing, black owned swimwear, black owned whiskey. Those are some of the top trending searches in that category over the past month. And then if we look at the people in Black History Month that were top searched, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. And Harriet Tubman.
Mason Paine – 3:36: Oh, that’s pretty nifty. You know, a little tidbit about Rosa Parks is the founder of Little Caesars. Paid her rent, I think, all the way until she passed away. She lived in downtown Detroit. I never knew that. I was like, that’s amazing.
Justin Burr – 3:51: That is a fun little tidbit.
Mason Paine – 3:53: That’s great, right? I was like, good for you. I was like, man, I want my rent paid, too, but I’m not Rosa Parks. She went through some stuff. She deserves it.
Justin Burr – 4:02: She did, and she does. That is true.
Mason Paine – 4:05: Now, the lunar new year, what was that about? I think, what is this, the year of the dragon? I think it’s the dragon.
Justin Burr – 4:11: The dragon. Dude, that’s a sick one. That’s a sick animal. I’m a horse. You’re the horse dragon. Objectively. Pretty awesome. Yeah.
Justin Burr – 4:19: So there was a lot of different search interest around the Lunar New year. So a lot of different little. You pass out red envelopes. Right. On the lunar new year. So there was one of the bigger trends in that category was, is it bad to reuse red envelopes? It’s a superstition held by some. It’s not a universal belief. So if you want to reuse some red envelopes, you can do that.
Justin Burr – 4:40: Generally, people put, like, chocolate certificates, lottery tickets, money, handwritten notes, until people are coming to Google, figure out, hey, what should I put in these red envelopes? Where do you buy red envelopes? You can go to Google Maps and you can search that in there. That’ll help. Who do you give red envelopes to? Yeah. So you’re the dragon. So happy Lunar New Year.
Mason Paine – 4:57: Absolutely. And honestly, the easiest thing you can ever do is gift money because you don’t have to put much thought into. I think, you know, if you have some spare change, that’s absolutely what you should be gifting. I mean, it goes good Christmas. Apparently, like the Lunar New Year, we’re going to have it for birthdays, we’re going to have it for anniversary.
Justin Burr – 5:16: I mean, yeah. Who’s going to be mad about that now?
Mason Paine – 5:18: Valentine’s Day, did you celebrate at all?
Justin Burr – 5:21: No, I’m a single guy, so it’s just sitting around doing nothing. Dude. But Valentine’s Day, there’s always some funny trends with this stuff because obviously people just waiting for the last minute to figure this stuff out. So one of the top trending searches during the week of Valentine’s Day was printable Valentine’s day cards. So not only are these people completely unprepared with a card or whatever, but they don’t even have time to go to a store. They are so last minute that they need to find one online that they can immediately print because they’ve got, like, 30 seconds before their Valentine’s Day. That cracks me up. A lot of last minute Valentine’s Day gifts for her.
Justin Burr – 5:56: Last minute Valentine’s Day gifts for him. Most romantic restaurants in New York City. Those searches grew by over 400%. But I don’t know. I mean, are we stoked on Valentine’s Day? It feels like just another big kind of unnecessary holiday that calls awareness to the single folk, mind you, makes me feel a little bit sad, but whatever.
Mason Paine – 6:16: Justin, don’t feel sad. Being single isn’t so bad. The next day is discount candy day. That’s what I look forward to.
Justin Burr – 6:24: That’s so true. Pop into the candy zone. Get a little sugar high, get juiced up on that.
Mason Paine – 6:30: Get myself a teddy bear. Get discount roses. Like, bro, it’s good.
Justin Burr – 6:35: That’s the kind of perspective that we need. Oh, there’s also some really funny Gen Z Valentine’s Day trends that we were looking at. So Valentine’s Day Riz lines had doubled in search interest. And Riz, you probably know. Who knows? People are out there listening. Probably know. But Riz is short for charisma. So if you have Riz, you’ve got game, and it’s good.
Justin Burr – 6:58: So people are searching for Valentine’s Day Riz lines, which makes me feel like if you’re searching for Riz on Google, maybe you don’t have much Riz, because searching for Riz doesn’t necessarily give you Riz. But I think it’s always funny. Also, situation Valentine’s Day cards. Apparently, a situation ship is someone that you’re dating but you’re not necessarily in a relationship with. So it’s a situation ship. And so there’s some trending around that. Oh, there’s also a lot of trends. Gen Z Valentine’s Day trends around a soft launch.
Justin Burr – 7:28: That’s when you’re kind of making cryptic Instagram or social media posts about a significant other without necessarily saying that they are your significant other. So maybe just, like, their hand is in the photo or, like, part of their body without showing their face. It’s a soft launch. So people were doing some soft launches. It’s Valentine’s Day.
Mason Paine – 7:47: Wow. That sounds so unnecessary. Not going to lie, that’s a lot of energy that I wouldn’t want to.
Justin Burr – 7:52: Get the younger generation. It’s a different world for me, but I find them fascinating.
Mason Paine – 7:56: It is. I love watching just kids growing up trying to find themselves. And you’re right. Riz lines is just pickup lines. And you’re right. If you have to look up pickup lines, you definitely. You got some work to do. Just go out there, bro.
Mason Paine – 8:09: The situation ships. I mean, if you’re getting gifts, bro, that’s a relationship. Stop splitting hairs.
Justin Burr – 8:17: That’s true. That’s true. Yeah. Time to elevate from situation to relation, right?
Mason Paine – 8:22: I’m spending money on you. We’re in a relationship, dude.
Justin Burr – 8:26: Yes. Amen.
Mason Paine – 8:27: Besides all the culture stuff I got to know, we got to go down to the ground. What about science? Was there anything trending in science?
Justin Burr – 8:35: Dude, so many funny things, dude. So retro. Technology, gadgets. Everything is so cyclical in this world. It’s hilarious. People are now playing with all of these technology gadgets that we grew up with, dude, Tamagotchi and virtual pets have reached a five year high in search interest. People have Tamagotchis again. That’s what we were doing in elementary school and middle school, playing with Tom Gotchis.
Justin Burr – 8:56: Now it’s coming back. Now it’s coming back, which is mind blowing. Also, point and shoot cameras, like the old digital cameras that you would carry around with you because you didn’t want to take, because you didn’t have a phone that could take photos and you’d carry around. That stuff is now making a comeback. So point and shoot cameras also reaching a five year high on search interest. Honestly, really funny, which is cool because I still have all that stuff. I still have. Oh, yeah, game Boy.
Justin Burr – 9:22: It’s trending on search again. I still have my Game Boy. I still somewhat sometimes break out and play a little pokemon blue version. What’s up? So everyone’s kind of coming back to these old cyclical, less technology, advanced gadgets, and that’s great. I think it’s cool.
Mason Paine – 9:41: Yeah. I looked up discmans and discmins are so expensive right now, it’s absolutely ridiculous. And I’m like, why are people discman. Discman. A discman. Like a Sony discman.
Justin Burr – 9:52: Oh, discman.
Mason Paine – 9:53: Oh, my God. And they’re calling them Walkmans. Are you that generation? Are you the guy calling them Walkmans and they’re actually a disc?
Justin Burr – 10:00: I was going to say. I was like, disc men? Yeah, no, I do them as walkmen.
Mason Paine – 10:04: Dude, Walkmans are the cassette players.
Justin Burr – 10:06: Really?
Mason Paine – 10:07: Yes. And disc men are the ones for the disc with the anti skip.
Justin Burr – 10:12: I mean, for sure, dude. Yeah, the anti skip, that basically, if you did anything, it was skipping. Yes, it did. The anti skip technology was not there.
Mason Paine – 10:21: No, it wasn’t. It’s like, stop moving, Justin. God, you’re ruining the CD.
Justin Burr – 10:26: It’s like, well, dude, the CD is getting me so hyped up that I got to start moving my little body. Yeah, okay. Wow, people are back into the discman zone.
Mason Paine – 10:36: Yeah. And they’re calling them Walkmans. Are you one of those people? Is it. Everything’s Nintendo.
Justin Burr – 10:43: I’m just kidding, man. Nintendo’s talking to. I was talking to my sister’s child the other day, who’s six. I was like, dude, do you guys play Nintendo? Do you even know what Nintendo is? He had no idea. Aren’t there, like, little kid, like, little kids play Nintendo? Is that just not a thing?
Mason Paine – 11:02: No. It’s funny.
Justin Burr – 11:05: It’s a bum for them.
Mason Paine – 11:06: It is a bum, bro. It’s like, what? Do they have switches?
Justin Burr – 11:10: Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. Like, they have switches, right? Yeah. I don’t know. He didn’t seem to know. He is only sick, so maybe he’s not. Like, he’s not there yet, but come.
Mason Paine – 11:18: On, dude, you know what you got to do. You’re going to have to get him some gear. You’re going to have to go get him some stuff.
Justin Burr – 11:24: That’s what I was telling him. I was like, bro, you need to get a Nintendo so that I can smoke you, because I’m sick at. So, like, I don’t want to sit here and watch your little dumb shows with you. I want to play some video games, and I want to rock you in Mario Kart.
Mason Paine – 11:38: Oh, bro. Smash brothers. You’re going to be like, I’m going to make you rage. You’re going to break your controller. We’re going to do it.
Justin Burr – 11:45: Make you upset.
Mason Paine – 11:49: My favorite thing to always talk about. I always love talking about the odd news. Is there anything that was, like, trending in OD news?
Justin Burr – 11:56: Yeah, dude. This one honestly gets me pretty stoked. So credit score dating app, that search interest is up by 600%. And this is a niche dating app that will match you based on your credit score with other people that have a similar credit score, which is hilarious and also so bizarre. And I haven’t looked into this, I haven’t downloaded it, I haven’t messed with it, but pretty silly. There’s so many different interesting dating apps that will match you on specific criteria. But being that it’s a credit score dating app, that’s the first time that I’ve seen that. Yeah.
Justin Burr – 12:30: Best meal kits for singles. Valentine’s day. Captions for singles. Blank blank for singles was big trends over the past month, which is honestly kind of sad, dude. And then cures island, the Cayman Islands were the top trending solo travel destinations. Also, a lot of people were searching how to be single in February. It’s like, I don’t know, bro. If you have to turn to google to figure out how to be single, we could do it.
Justin Burr – 12:58: You just.
Mason Paine – 12:59: Yes. Yeah, that’s it. You just exist. You have fun, you make lots of friends and go out. That’s it.
Justin Burr – 13:07: Just bop around, play some nintendo. Okay. There’s also. Okay, so we got leap day as well. So that’s sick. Leap day. This year we get an extra day. Joyous.
Justin Burr – 13:16: And so people were trending. Certain or some certain trending things were around, like every four years. So there’s, like, food trends that you have related to the number four since leap day is only every four years. So like four cheese pizza or four ingredients, something kind of a loose trend. I don’t know. It doesn’t really excite me that much. But I like that people are getting creative and having leap day parties of things that surround the number four.
Mason Paine – 13:43: I’m surprised the proposal thing wasn’t trending for leap year. Isn’t that the year women can propose to their boyfriends? It’s like a weird tradition thing. Yeah, that’s a thing.
Justin Burr – 13:55: I don’t know.
Mason Paine – 13:56: I’m surprised that wasn’t trending, but I got to ask. Okay, wait, I’ll go ahead.
Justin Burr – 14:01: It’s only on the leap day or just, like, in the year. The leap year is when women are supposed to be proposing to men.
Mason Paine – 14:09: It’s the day on the leap year day. On the day you could propose to a dude and be like, will you marry me?
Justin Burr – 14:17: That’s fascinating. I don’t know anything about that. All right.
Mason Paine – 14:20: Yeah, they made movies about that. Where have you been? Oh, wait, you don’t watch movies. You’re out surfing. That’s where you are.
Justin Burr – 14:26: I’m out surfing, bro. Time for the cinema.
Mason Paine – 14:31: But you know what? Hey, Justin, what’s your credit score? I’m 750. Are you around there? Because then we’re a match.
Justin Burr – 14:38: Yeah, that’s. Know, last I checked, I was a little north of, so I don’t know.
Mason Paine – 14:43: We’re not compatible. I have too many open credit cards, apparently. Like, damn, Justin.
Justin Burr – 14:52: But I think that’s good. Whatever. Credit. We could do an entire episode on credit score stuff. I never know how to optimize because, hey, you have too many open, and then it’s like, wait, actually, you need to open more.
Mason Paine – 15:02: And then you can’t use more than 30% of the credit card. Right? And then you have to have an old credit, too. So every time you open a new credit card, your credit usage goes down. I’m like, I don’t understand this. Apparently, this dating app is going to help me.
Justin Burr – 15:20: Yeah, there you go. The dating app will also improve your credit score more. Every single match goes up a point.
Mason Paine – 15:26: Yeah, right. Let’s see what else happened. Oh, how could I forget? Super bowl football, man. Come on. What did you think of it?
Justin Burr – 15:35: Super Bowl? I thought it was really exciting. Well, the first bit was actually extremely boring. There was just, like, super defensive, and no one was scoring, and there wasn’t much happening. But, I mean, man, going into overtimes also, just, like, so many bizarre things happened to have it go the chiefs way, like the punt that knocked off of the 49 ers guy’s foot, and then the 49 ers not getting that touchdown on the first drive of overtime when they looked so good and so succinct and just so much momentum, and then them also taking the ball first rather than referring. I don’t know. There was just a lot of crazy things, but it was awesome. Taylor was looking like, what an awesome woman, dude. Just so stoked on her.
Justin Burr – 16:20: So I was stoked for her. The Super bowl was incredibly exciting. I thought the ads were good. I thought the Michael Cera therapy one was extremely fun. Like when he put the lotion on the mountain to smooth it out. I thought that was hilarious. So overall, I thought it was a great Super bowl and I enjoyed it.
Mason Paine – 16:38: Yeah, Usher, too.
Justin Burr – 16:39: Usher was sick.
Mason Paine – 16:40: Oh, definitely. And Beyonce, I love the book Verizon commercial. She’s trying to break the Internet. And then her cowboy album, I listened to some of it. Some of its songs grew on me, but not all of them. So I’m just waiting because Beyonce, I already know fire, but I’ve just got to wait for things to grow on me.
Justin Burr – 17:00: Yes. They fired. Yeah. I feel like everyone’s using that Texas hold them song and so many different social media posts right now. That’s really the only song I’ve heard. But she’s queen, dude.
Mason Paine – 17:09: But that overtime, that really killed me. I still don’t know. I mean, the 49ers won the flip and I’m like, why did they go first? I would have went last. Yeah, I don’t know what they were thinking.
Justin Burr – 17:17: Definitely. Because in that situation, obviously you go last every single fourth down. You’re going for it. If you know that you have to score a touchdown. So they’re down on whatever, like the three yard line. When they kick that field goal to go up, you’re going to go for it there because you know you have to get a touchdown. So, yeah, it was a bit of a bummer to go down the way that it did. But I mean, dude, you just can’t bet against Patrick Mahomes.
Mason Paine – 17:41: That guy’s too sick.
Justin Burr – 17:42: He’s so good. He’s just so clutch and he gets the ball back and he knows what he needs to do. You know that he’s going to take care of business. So kudos to him, man. Guy’s a legend.
Mason Paine – 17:56: I just can’t believe it. They definitely were not the favorites to win. And you’re right, the beginning was so slow, but you have to be impressed by the defense on both sides for there to be such a good stalemate. And towards the end, I got super stoked about it, super excited and I just was like completely shocked. I was shocked that the Chiefs pulled it off. I was just like, what is going on? But you’re right. I mean, I should never have thought Mahomes wasn’t going to do it.
Justin Burr – 18:22: Yeah, man, guys, just too clutch. Guy gets the ball in his hands when he knows what he needs to do, he’s going to do it. That was a great game. I’m stoked on it.
Mason Paine – 18:29: Yeah. And speaking of sports. NBA all star weekend, baby. Did you watch?
Justin Burr – 18:35: You know, the only thing that I actually, actually watched was the three point contest between a Sabrina Ionescu and Steph Curry. Because Sabrina, man, big fan, went to the University of Oregon, where I went, the greatest of all time. We absolutely love her. Such a duck legend and one of the greatest pure shooters of all time. And she showed out against Steph Curry. So if people aren’t familiar, they did a three point contest between the WNBA and the NBA. Sabrina versus Steph. One of the greatest WNBA shooters against the greatest NBA shooter of all time.
Justin Burr – 19:06: Sabrina was shooting with WNBA basketball, but from the NBA line. From the NBA line, people. So that’s awesome. And she lost by three points. But it was sick and she put on a good show, and I was stoked on that. It was great to see her in part of the NBA All Star weekend. The rest, I was watching the Twitter reaction of the actual game. Everyone was pretty not stoked on it.
Justin Burr – 19:28: They’re like, dude, if the players aren’t even going to care about it, why should we care about it? So I didn’t watch. I guess I did watch the highlights of the dunk contest. Matt McClung, what a legend that guy is. The man two years running. Guy’s got hops. But the rest of it, I don’t know. It’s not done.
Mason Paine – 19:42: Tyson, that’s so true. I watched the dunk contest, and that’s what I watch is the contest between Steph and her. And I knew Steph was going to win. I mean, that dude is so competitive. He wasn’t going to be nice to anybody.
Justin Burr – 19:57: I agree. Steph was going to win. But you just wanted Sabrina.
Mason Paine – 20:03: Oh, no. To put up a good effort there.
Justin Burr – 20:04: And she rocked it.
Mason Paine – 20:05: Like, she showed out. 26. I think that was the high score.
Justin Burr – 20:08: Too, 26 to 29.
Mason Paine – 20:10: The other three point contest they had with a bunch of other dudes, I forgot which one they call that, but they was like, 26 was like the highest everybody was getting. And I forgot who won that because I was shocked that Steph wasn’t part of that. But obviously, he was going to do the one with Sabrina. So they were like, we got to leave him out of that 3.1 to leave him with the main one and the dunk contest with Mac. Oh, dude, that was crazy. He jumped over two dudes. I thought that was incredible. That’s incredible height.
Justin Burr – 20:41: And he hopped over, and when he did that, he did the stutter pass to himself where he dropped the ball and then grabbed it back and then dunked it. I mean, yeah, he’s just jumping out of the gym. It’s awesome. He’s really sick to watch.
Mason Paine – 20:56: I love him, man. With everything that was happening in February, was there anything that we missed in trending? I’m just curious.
Justin Burr – 21:02: The only other thing was that there were some weird coffee trends trending in February. Late perfume. Late perfume, which I assume is some sort of a fragrance you can put on yourself that smells like a late. That trend had increased. That search interest had increased by 2500% in the month of February. Also bacon flavored coffee, big trend. And coffee flavored cereal, also a massive trend. But late perfume, interesting trend.
Justin Burr – 21:34: 2500% is a big one. I’m not sure that I’ve smelled anybody wearing that, but I don’t think I’d be mad at it.
Mason Paine – 21:39: I think you’re right. I don’t think I’d be mad at it, but I’d be a little bit frustrated. Like who has that delicious smelling coffee? I want a cup. And it turns out it’s just perfume. I’m going to feel a little bit tricked.
Justin Burr – 21:53: That’s true. That’s a good point. That’s a good point. Yeah. You’re going to hate. Let me get a sip. And then they’re like, no, that’s just me. You’re going to be like, you fooled me.
Justin Burr – 22:02: Yeah, that’s a bummer.
Mason Paine – 22:04: Exactly. And bacon flavored coffee. I don’t know how I feel about that. I don’t know how I feel about that.
Justin Burr – 22:12: Bacon sick. But do we have to have it bacon flavored? Everything, right? I mean, if people get stoked on it, go for it. But yeah, come on.
Mason Paine – 22:18: I’m just thinking it’s going to be a little salty and smoky and bacony in my coffee. Will it go well with my creamer? I don’t know. I think I’m going to pass on that.
Justin Burr – 22:32: Yeah, no, I think that’s wise.
Mason Paine – 22:36: Well, Justin, thank you for joining me. It’s always a pleasure to have you here. And for those listening, where can they find more information about all these trends?
Justin Burr – 22:44: You can go to slash trends. You can see what’s trending right now. You can see previous trends. You can search for search trends. Google.com slash trends, your one stop shop.
Announcer – 22:56: This has been the Mason Vera Paine Show. Thanks for listening.
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