What South Africans wanted to know in January 2023, according to search trends
With the new year in full gear, local and global headlines have piqued South Africans’ curiosity across the board. Google search traffic in January revealed a lot of interest in athletic events, matric results, and technological innovations. How to check matric results online was on many people’s thoughts. This was also the month’s second most
What South Africans wanted to know in January 2023, according to search trends
With the new year in full gear, local and global headlines have piqued South Africans’ curiosity across the board. Google search traffic in January revealed a lot of interest in athletic events, matric results, and technological innovations.
How to check matric results online was on many people’s thoughts. This was also the month’s second most popular search term. As a result of this, and with many students embarking on their new journey to tertiary education, questions about how to upload documents to the NSFAS website arose. This appeared in both the top terms and the queries that were searched.
Searches for UNISA registration and Vaal University of Technology (VUT) emerged in the top ten most searched terms.
The month also brought with it a slew of headlines on artificial intelligence and how it may affect the livelihoods of employees worldwide. The emergence of ChatGPT, a chatbot launched by OpenAI in November 2022, piqued the interest of people turning to Search.
Sporting events such as the FA Cup, the Australian Open, and the SA20 emerged in searches throughout January, reflecting the country’s love of sports. On January 2, news of the tragic death of American rally driver Ken Block in a snowmobile accident appeared in the top five most googled terms.
Excited about upcoming celebrations, South Africans also searched for when Valentine’s day is, and were curious about New year’s day 2023.
Below is a full list of everything that piqued South Africa’s curiosity in January:
| Top searched questions | Top searched terms |
| How to check matric results online 2022 with id number What is technology How to upload documents on nsfas What is tourism What is chatgpt What is a prime number What is geographyWhat is history What is a map When is valentine’s day 2023 | FA cup Matric results 2022 Australian opensa20 Ken Block New year’s day 2023Unisa registration FA cup fixtures My nsfas.org.za VUT |
Search trends information is gathered from data collated by Google based on what South Africans have been searching for. Google processes more than 40 000 search queries every second. This translates to more than a billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide. ‘Top searches’ indicate searches that topped Google’s charts while ‘Most searched’ queries are the most popular terms for the past 15 years, ranked in order by volume of searches. Live Google search trends data is available at https://www.google.co.za/trends/hottrends#pn=p40
