2023 was an eventful year for people across India with record-setting scientific advancements, wars, global summits and blockbuster movies. Data shared by Google indicates that the country's most-searched news topic was the Chandrayaan-3 moon mission while queries about the G20 summit ranked high on the ‘what is’ segment. Some topics – such as the death of FRIENDS star Matthew Perry and the Gaza war dominated Google search trends across the world.
The country's most searched news topic was the Chandrayaan-3 space mission followed by updates about the Karnataka Assembly elections and the Israel-Gaza war. Disasters such as the Turkey earthquake and Odisha train accident made it to the top trends as did updates about Manipur amid recurring bouts of violence. Many also searched for information following the deaths of actors Satish Kaushik and Matthew Perry.
Here are the most-searched news events of 2023:
Shah Rukh Khan's Jawan featured on the global Year in Search roundup as the world's third most searched Movie (preceded only by Barbie and Oppenheimer). Sunny Deol's Gadar 2 ranked 8th with another SRK movie – Pathaan – rounding out the top 10. Kiara Advani ranked ninth on the global list of most-searched actors. Both the Indian cricket team and player Shubman Gill found themselves ranking on the global top 10 lists for athletes and sports teams.
Indians also searched for tips to prevent sun damage using home remedies and consulted Google for ways to become good at kabaddi or a chess grandmaster. Others still wanted to know how they could reach their first 5,000 followers on YouTube or ways to improve car mileage.
India launched the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on July 14 from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh as millions from around the globe watched. It became the first country to land on the lunar south pole in late August as the the Vikram Lander touched down and the Pragyan rover was deployed. The scientific instruments were operated continuously for 1 lunar day and the mission met (even exceeded) its objectives.
The record setting journey appears to have been tracked by people across the world with Chandrayaan-3 ranking ninth in a list of global news searches.
Meanwhile the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza led global news trends followed by the Titanic submarine disappearance and the devastating earthquake in Turkey. At a global level American football safety Damar Hamlin led the ‘people’ search segment.
