In a year dominated by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s not a surprise that the top searches on Google in Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria have been dominated, according to the company’s review, by inquiries about the virus.
In South Africa, the hardest-hit country on the continent, people searched for details about the imposed lockdowns and news about cigarettes and alcohol which were banned from sale.
In Kenya, some of the questions people searched for in relation to the pandemic included: how to make sanitisers and how to boost immunity.
Searches about misleading content like the role 5G in the spread of coronavirus was among topics people looked for in South Africa.
There was also interest in the US elections in the three countries with users searching for details about president-elect Joe Biden and the incoming vice-president Kamala Harris.
Nigerians, just like users in the other two countries, searched for local celebrity news.
News about the English Premier League was popular in Kenya.
In Nigeria, Fem, a song by Afrobeats star Davido was the most searched.
Recipes for porn star martini – a popular South African cocktail made with passion fruit – was also among the top searches in Nigeria.
