“Quaran-topics”: Lockdown Fads That Have Already Been and Gone
With the Coronavirus-induced lockdown passing 4 weeks in the UK, so much of our society has changed rapidly. People across the country are stuck in their homes 24/7 and, as a result, our online searches have been going haywire. Viral stories have even shorter life spans than they did before and our internet habits have shifted in line with our new indoor needs.
Since search engines are our speciality, we thought we would take a look at some of the most exploding ‘quarantopics’ and find out what we were all loving in week 1 of lockdown that has quickly been kicked to the kerb as we round off our first month.
The UK’s Top 5 ‘Quarantopics’ – Overall
The 5 topics that caught our attention in the UK the most, with the most meteoric rise and fall in the public consciousness since the lockdown started.
1. 5G
2. Joe Wicks
3. Vitamin C
4. Ivermectin
5. Dalgona Coffee
The UK’s Top 5 ‘Quarantopics’ – Year-on-Year Change
Comparing the interest in these topics to last March, the 5 with the most increased interest thanks to corona.
1. Dalgona Coffee – +90,000% interest
2. Bamboo Toilet Paper – +1956% interest
3. Bidet – +805% interest
4. Oximeter – +650% interest
5. Elderberry – +513% interest
A brand new phenomenon, the Dalgona Coffee is the king of the quarantine with a staggering 90,000 more searches this year than last.
Trend Rankings
1. 5G
2. Joe Wicks
Meanwhile, fitness star Joe Wicks who is offering free Youtube workouts aimed at kids saw an explosion of interest in late March which has since dwindled, perhaps the novelty has worn off?
3. Vitamin C
The common cold cure-all interest in Vitamin C spiked early in lockdown, before we were assured that the supplement wouldn’t do much in the face of COVID-19.
4. Ivermectin
5. Dalgona Coffee
6. Oximeter
7. Bidet
8. Homeschooling
9. Elderberry
10. Augmented Reality
11. DIY Masks
12. Bamboo Toilet Paper
13. Aviation Gin
14. Stand-up Meeting
15. Terraforming of Mars
Lockdown Fitness
The interest in different ways of keeping fit during lockdown has seen a rise and fall in different trends. Luxury e-bike brand Peloton enjoyed an initial spike but has since seen interest fall, Hight Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) searches have remained steadily stronger throughout and “cycling shorts” (no doubt to ride your fancy new Peloton) are only just starting to grow in volume.
What Trends Are Still to Come?
In addition to the rise and fall of these peculiar topics, we also noticed a couple of popular searches that could indicate what the future holds for lockdown searching.
1. Dark Web
2. Dog Toothpaste
Our Instagram and Twitter feeds were initially crammed full of pictures of people’s pets captioned “new coworker” but office tensions have since risen, with a very recent spike in searches for dog toothpaste.
3. Damnation
We really do love to torture ourselves. There’s been an upward curve of people using the search term “damnation” since late March. A little too on the nose?
Methodology
We used Exploding Topics to identify the topics with the sharpest rise and fall in interest on Google in the last three months and Google Trends to substantiate these results.
For year-on-year increase data, we used SEO Monitor’s Search Trends Tool.
