Coronavirus: Top Australian searches on Google as nation gets to grips with ‘new normal’
Stressed-out Australians are hitting up Google for answers to questions about the coronavirus pandemic. Here are the top searches as the nation gets to grips with the new normal.
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Australians are hitting up Google for answers to questions concerning them over the coronavirus pandemic.
Social isolation, telecommuting, homeschooling and hand sanitiser recipes are among the hot topics stressed-out Aussies are punching into their smartphone as they come to grips with their new normal.
The definition of state of emergency and where to get tested for the coronavirus were also among the top issues Australians are searching information for in the past week, Google Australia says.
New Google Trends data obtained by News Corp Australia shows search interest for “What does self-isolation mean?” spiked 1540 per cent in the past week.
As companies moved to combat the spread of the virus by urging their workers to work from home, interest in the search term “Should I work from home” was up by 760 per cent.
The most searched questions in Australia on working remotely over the past seven days included how to work from home, should a person work from home, how to work effectively and which companies were working from home.
The lack of hand sanitiser online or on the stripped shelves in the nation’s supermarket and pharmacies led to a rise in searches for DIY recipes, up by 2400 per cent in the past week.
The Morrison government’s refusal to close schools has also had an effect as more parents decide to pull their kids from the classroom and continue their studies at home.
Google searches in Australia for homeschooling has climbed to its highest point in five years, reaching its daily peak on March 18, up 250 per cent over the past week.
And the most searched questions showed that some Australians are taking the concept of homeschooling seriously and not just for the short term.
The most searched topics on Google included how to homeschool a child, whether homeschooling is legal in Australia and how much homeschooling costs.
When it comes to children, the most-searched questions reveal the growing concerns among Australian parents about the lack of school closures and potential infection rates among the young.
Over the past week, the most searched questions relating to children in Australia have been whether or not kids can contract the virus and should a parent send their child to school or daycare.
Anxious Australian parents also wanted to know how many children have died from the coronavirus and how best to wash a child’s hands to combat the killer disease.
But it wasn't all doom and gloom when it came to making preparations for social distancing — user interest in the search term “Netflix party”, the browser extension which allows TV fans host long-distance movie nights, has soared in the past week (up 980 per cent).
Australians couldn’t get enough of the case of Hollywood star Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson — both diagnosed with coronavirus and placed into quarantine on the Gold Coast —
with “Tom Hanks coronavirus” the top trending search over the past week.
Other top trending searches in Australia included Peter Dutton’s coronavirus diagnosis and Ruby Gobert, the Utah Jazz basketballer who sent the NBA into shutdown after testing positive.
The top questions on coronavirus in the past week, the Google Trends data revealed, were the number of cases in Australia, the origins of the deadly virus, if it was possible to get the coronavirus twice, what the virus actually is and how long the pandemic will last.
Originally published as Coronavirus: Top Australian searches on Google as nation gets to grips with ‘new normal’
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