As is the tradition for the past 12 years, Google has released its lists in December featuring the most popular trending searches conducted by Romanians in the concluding year. Google’s lists showcase the topics and individuals that garnered the most interest in Romanian searches, highlighting the most popular events in 2023, including movies, TV series, recipes, and the questions posed by users.
Earthquakes took center stage in Romanians’ Google searches in 2023. The earthquake measuring over 5 on the Richter scale that occurred in Gorj in February, as well as the tragic seismic event in Turkey at the beginning of the year, led to a rapid increase in Google searches related to earthquakes. Artificial intelligence emerged as the technology of the moment, reflected in search queries. Furthermore, the list of notable searches in 2023 includes global events such as the conflict between Israel and Gaza, as well as local events like the teachers’ strike in Romania. The list also includes the death of Rona Hartner, the latest iPhone model, and Oppenheimer, a search encompassing both the film of the same name and physicist Robert Oppenheimer, whose story is depicted on screen.
Romanian creations are well-represented in this year’s search lists for movies and TV series. Among the movies are two Romanian titles – Romina, VTM, and Miami Bici 2, while in the TV series category, four are domestic productions – Lia, the wife of my husband, Clanul, Camera 609, and Groapa – with another, Wednesday, being filmed in Romania and securing the top spot on the list of series. In terms of recipes, Romanians searched for flavors from the past adapted to the current trend of healthy eating, including homemade liver pâté, as well as more exotic elements such as cocktail and tapioca recipes.
Romanians inquired about ‘How did Vlad the Impaler die?’ in connection with a TV series dedicated to the Romanian ruler broadcast this year, as well as how an earthquake occurs or how to make sourdough. They sought more information on negotiation techniques, sales strategies, and face reading. Lastly, Romanians turned to Google to explore investment opportunities, with photovoltaics being the most sought-after investment domain this year.
From the ‘trending’ search list for 2023, we learned that the most searched game was Hogwarts Legacy, Untold topped searches for concerts/festivals, and Coldplay led in the bands category. The most sought-after show was America Express, Valea Zălanului in Romania experienced the highest growth in search interest, and the trendiest job in searches was that of a skipper.
The rankings for the most popular Google searches in 2023 were compiled using ‘trending’ lists, which represent searches that exhibited sustained growth compared to 2022 over a considerable period. The ‘trending’ lists differ from the most searched terms (expressions/words on Google, involving absolute volumes that tend to change very little from year to year). Analyzing trending searches allows for the identification of specific interests in 2023. The lists for this year are presented below.
Top searches in 2023
- Earthquake
- Chat GPT
- Rona Hartner
- Israel Gaza conflict
- iPhone 15
- Earthquake Turkey
- Oppenheimer
- Romania-Switzerland
- Teachers strike
- Character AI