Join us as we explore the top search trends for the month of February with Google Trends Expert, Sarah Armstrong. From the latest entertainment news to groundbreaking developments in science and technology, Sarah will take us through the most searched-for topics in categories like entertainment, culture, science, sports, odd news, and recipes.
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Google Trends February Transcription
[00:00] – Announcer: Mason Vera Paine.
[00:01] – Mason Paine: Sarah Armstrong, Google Trends expert, is here to share the most popular trends that people search on Google in the month of February. Thanks for joining me, Sarah.
[00:09] – Sarah Armstrong: Thank you for having me.
[00:11] – Mason Paine: So for this month, man, there was so much that happened. But for me, at least, I think Super Bowl was the biggest thing. What was the top search trend for that?
[00:20] – Sarah Armstrong: So what struck me as funny with the Super Bowl is Rihanna pregnant. That was the big trend of the night. In fact, it wasn’t just our big trend for the Super Bowl. That day, it was the top trending search on Google overall. So lots of folks were interested in that half time show.
[00:37] – Mason Paine: That’s hilarious. It wasn’t even the actual game. Mahone’s wasn’t even up there.
[00:43] – Sarah Armstrong: Right. Like, of course, we’re seeing players trending. The mom of the two players who has sons on both teams. We saw a lot of search interest around her. Different questions about football rules and stuff for folks who aren’t as familiar with football but probably tuning into the Super Bowl. The commercials were really popular as well, especially the Fast 10 trailer that saw a lot of search interest. But it was that half time show that really got people searching.
[1:11] – Mason Paine: Yeah, that half time show, it was pretty lit. But as soon as Rihanna came out, first thing I thought of was like, Wait, she’s pregnant? I didn’t hear anything about that. And then I thought…
[1:21] – Sarah Armstrong: I know. And of course, I’m one of the people searching, is Rihanna pregnant?
[1:24] – Mason Paine: Yeah. And I thought I was being rude at first. Maybe she’s not pregnant and she’s just eating really good and I shouldn’t say she’s pregnant. That’s rude. And then it turns out she’s pregnant and I felt, Okay, I feel pretty vindicated.
[1:36] – Sarah Armstrong: Totally. And her partner, ASAP Rocky, we saw a big spike in search interest for him as well. So that couple was definitely popular.
[01:44] – Mason Paine: Now, another thing that happen was the Grammys that go up at high in the searches at all?
[1:48] – Sarah Armstrong: Definitely. We saw a huge spike in the Grammys earlier this month. Viola Davis was one of our big searches because she earned an EGOT with her Grammys win. So that means she has an EMI, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony now. She’s one of very few people who have achieved all four of those awards. So it was pretty exciting.
[02:10] – Mason Paine: What was she in for the “T”? Tony? I don’t remember her singing in anything. Was she in a play?
[2:16] – Sarah Armstrong: She definitely was. I have to look up what she got her Tony for. She got her Grammy for narrating her audiobook. And I looked it up, she was a lead actor in the play. Very cool.
[02:30] – Mason Paine: Good for her. That’s hard to get. It’s like Kentucky Derby, man. Getting all the Triple Crown, right?
[2:37] – Sarah Armstrong: Totally, exactly.
[02:39] – Mason Paine: So I know what else happened. Valentine’s Day. Was there anything top searching there?
[2:44] – Sarah Armstrong: Yes, we always see lots of interest around Valentine’s Day. Also, Valentine’s Day, celebrating with your friends. And then some folks looking up different searches around being single. So gift ideas for men always trend. We often see gift ideas for men trending more and women, which I find funny. Lots of destination. Questions around who should plan Valentine’s Day, who should I ask to see my Valentine, and then Galentine Mocktail is also trending.
[3:14] – Mason Paine: A Galentine Mocktail? Wait, is that a real cocktail or a mock tail without alcohol? I think it.
[3:20] – Sarah Armstrong: Must be a cocktail without alcohol. Maybe the ladies are getting together celebrating Valentine’s Day. I also saw lots of questions about is it weird to do certain things alone? So maybe you don’t have a partner on Valentine’s Day, you want to go out and do something. We saw is it weird to go to a bar alone, a concert, a restaurant, which I have actually not. Oh, the movies. I haven’t dined alone or been to the movies alone, but it made me realize I need to try and do one of those things.
[03:47] – Mason Paine: Breakfast is the only thing I’ve ever done alone because it’s like you’ll wake up at five in the morning, you need a cup of coffee, you forgot to eat at home, you go into whatever diner is near your office and boom, you’re eating alone. I’ve done that before, but never lunch or dinner. I think that’s way too risky for me.
[04:03] – Sarah Armstrong: I know. I want the confidence to be somebody who can go out to dinner by themselves. I have not reached it, but maybe this year.
[04:10] – Mason Paine: This year. It’s okay if you don’t. Not a lot of people have. I’m not sure I can. What do you do with your eyes? Do I just stare at other people eating? Do I keep my head down?
[4:19] – Sarah Armstrong: And I don’t want to just be staring at my phone the whole time. So maybe not for me.
[4:25] – Mason Paine: Was there anything else in culture that was trending?
[04:28] – Sarah Armstrong: Yeah. So we saw the NBA trending a lot for two different reasons this month. One, we had NBA All Star Weekend. So some of the greatest players playing against each other. Giannis was a player who we saw a lot of interest in. And then And also we saw the NBA scoring record trending because LeBron James beat Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s scoring record for the most points ever. So that was pretty exciting.
[4:56] – Mason Paine: Yeah, I remember that game and I watched it. I think the Lakers lost that game, which was sad. It would have been nice if they won it and he got the scoring record. That would have been pretty cool.
[05:05] – Sarah Armstrong: That would have been cool. At least he got the scoring record out of it. But yeah, lots of folks asking who had the scoring record before, how many points is the scoring record? It’s 38,411, which is a lot of points.
[5:19] – Mason Paine: Yeah, right. You start thinking about it like, man, what did he start? He started, I think, at 18, right out of high school. And I’m not sure anybody can ever match that. I mean, that’s a lot of time. And I think he’s 34 now, 35. So he’s pretty old. He’s getting to his retirement age soon. But he’s still got some juice left in him. I think maybe two more years, three more years. So that score is going to go even higher. It’s going to be amazing.
[5:43] – Sarah Armstrong: Totally. It’s amazing how long some of these guys play. One of the top search questions on the scoring record was how many seasons did Kareem play? He played 21 seasons, which is so many.
[5:55] – Mason Paine: Especially when you think about how much they do to their body when they’re playing and their knees goes, there goes their ankles. It’s like, what pieces are going to be left of you by the time you retire, man?
[6:07] – Sarah Armstrong: Totally. I feel like I go on a run and I’m like, Wow, I’ve really put my body through it. I couldn’t imagine having that as your career.
[6:15] – Mason Paine: One of the things that I saw that was trending was Colorado River, but I didn’t actually see that trending. What did I miss?
[6:22] – Sarah Armstrong: Yeah. So Colorado River, we saw a lot of a search interest around that. I think I was also less clued into it being on the east side of the country, but it was a big deal on the West Coast, especially. So this river is a water source for lots of different states. It actually runs through seven different states, starting in Colorado and then going down to the Gulf of California. So we’ve got New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Nevada. Lots of search interests in those states. It’s drying up. And so there was tons of search interest about what to do, how these different states can divide up the water that’s left. So it’s an interesting science, climate change trend that’s going on and thinking about how this water could be used in the future.
[7:11] – Mason Paine: Oh, wow. That’s scary. I imagine we’re not going to go thirsty, though. We got Lake Michigan, you guys can have some.
[7:17] – Sarah Armstrong: Exactly. Can we get some of that water over there? Yeah. And there’s a lot of rain and storming going on on the West Coast right now, which hopefully helps that river rise a little bit, probably not enough to make up for all those years of drought, but should offer a little relief there.
[7:33] – Mason Paine: Now, one of the trends that I saw that was a no brainer was the ufos. I actually followed that pretty closely because it was just so strange.
[7:40] – Sarah Armstrong: I was obsessed with the UFO’s. It was so bizarre. I love that S&L boosted. But yes, there was, of course, the balloon, but then there were all these other unidentified flying objects that came after that. I know there were some in Canada. And so that captured folks’ imagination. And we saw a huge spike in questions like, are aliens real? That triple this month in search interest, folks wanting to know what’s in the sky, are these ufos aliens? So a little scifi searching there.
[8:13] – Mason Paine: I wonder if History channel trended ancient aliens.
[8:16] – Sarah Armstrong: Oh, that would make sense. And we also saw alien versus predator trending and alien trending much more than predator, I would say. Alien was there.
[8:26] – Mason Paine: I love that. People are looking for aliens and they went right to the Sigourney Weaver movie. Exactly. Was there anything trending in food?
[8:35] – Sarah Armstrong: Yes. So national pizza days in February, February ninth, and we saw pizza trending for sure. Heartshaped pizza always trends in February because it’s Valentine’s Day. And then that’s followed by Chicago pizza at number two, Brazilian pizza at number three.
[8:50] – Mason Paine: Chicago pizza, I imagine that’s the deep dish.
[8:54] – Sarah Armstrong: Yes, that is the deep dish. And we went ahead and looked at New York style pizza, which is of that more classic round, thinner, crisp pizza that we think of. And then this Detroit style pizza, which is like thicker, cut into squares. And it’s really the top half of the country, they are searching for Detroit style pizza more. The bottom half of the country New York style pizza. And it’s like a perfect line straight across, which is interesting.
[9:20] – Mason Paine: Wow. I didn’t know that the squares were considered Detroit. I just thought I was too lazy to get the pie cut.
[9:27] – Sarah Armstrong: I didn’t know it was a specific type. And there are all these other styles of pizza trending. Brooklyn style pizza, I had to look that up. That’s a thinner crust and when it’s cut into six slices, so you get a much bigger slice. There’s a lot of styles of pizza I didn’t even know.
[9:41] – Mason Paine: Yeah, right. And I love pizza. I celebrate National Pizza Day every day if I could because I absolutely love pizza.
[9:48] – Sarah Armstrong: I know. It should be a bigger national holiday.
[9:52] – Mason Paine: Absolutely. We should give it its own month. You could do that, too. We can have a different pizza for every day. I think we could do it.
[10:00] – Sarah Armstrong: Yes, let’s do it.
[10:02] – Mason Paine: Well, Sarah, thank you so much. And I appreciate you being here. For those listening, where can they find more information about all these topics we talked about?
[10:09] – Sarah Armstrong: Yes, you can go to Google.com/trends and check them out for yourself.
[10:15] – Announcer: This has been the Mason Vera Paine Show. Thanks for listening.
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