‘Ration dukaan’ to ‘how to WFH’: Here’s what India is searching for on Google

Google’s new report shows top Search trends and the results are mostly what we expected.

Indians are busy searching for online payments, health consultations and more as the lockdown keeps people at home. (Canva)

Everyone's turning to tools and services available online as the lockdown keeps people home. Google has also been releasing Search trends which show some interesting results. There's a new report about what people in India are searching for based on the top five trends.

Google's "What is India searching for?" report for brands lists out the top five trends that emerged the most this year. These Search trends reflect how life changed after the lockdown due to Covid-19 started in India. Most of the top searches by Indian users won't be very surprising and quite relatable as well.

The top Google Search trend in India is searching for essential services. "Near me" searches for things like "ration dukaan", vet doctors, pharmacies, and grocery deliveries have been increasing since March. Ration dukaan saw the highest queries which increased by over 300%. "Best" searches have also grown quite a lot for products like headset, 2W insurance, mattress, movies on YouTube and trading platforms.

Searches for learning at home have also naturally seen an uptick., and people have been searching for "gym at home", "5 minute recipes", "learn online", "teach online", and "at-home learning". People are also looking for more advanced courses like machine learning and data science.

The keyword "immunity" has also seen a 500% increase along with vitamin C which grew by over 150% in recent weeks. Searches for "consult doctor online" have also increased by over 60%.

Another expected Google Search trend is online payments with "how to change UPI PIN" seeing a 200% growth. More of these include "how to pay electric bill online", "overnight mutual funds" and "electricity bill check (in Hindi)".

With the change in environment for working professionals and students, 1 out of every 2 consumers are searching for "how to homeschool kids" and "how to WFH". More search queries include "collaborative software" and "free video dating". Online consumption was also really high with "Indians clocked almost four hours per week per person on video on demand". And search interest for video streaming platforms increasing by up to 120%.