What do Charlotte’s top Google searches in 2016 say about the city?
It’s been a tumultuous year in Charlotte. It started with the Panthers’ Super Bowl loss (sorry to dredge that memory up), then we had that whole crazy election, local turmoil surrounding the LGBTQ nondiscrimination ordinance and the infamous bill that followed, and the police shooting and protests that rocked the city in September.
So do our Google searches reflect all of this? Kind of. Google released its 2016 Year in Search lists Wednesday, and you can dig into the national data here. We got a look at Charlotte’s top searches from the year and it shows that the city showed a strong interest in national politics, unhealthy fast food and, of course, Donald Trump.
One search term was noticeably absent from the list: House Bill 2 (or HB2). With the impact that the bill had on the state — and especially Charlotte — it’s surprising it didn’t make these lists.
Here’s a look at Charlotte’s top Google searches in 2016 (anything in parentheses is comments from me):
Top Trending Searches
– Hurricane Matthew (Which hit the state in October and caused major flooding in Eastern N.C.)
– Powerball
– Prince (The singer/songwrite died in April.)
– Donald Trump
– Compass Learning (Which seems to be a student portal for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools)
Top Trending News
– Olympics
– Presidential Election
– Charlotte Riots
– Orlando Shooting (The shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando that killed 49 people)
– Alton Sterling (A black man who was shot by police in July in Baton Rouge, La.)
Top Trending People
– Donald Trump
– Cam Newton
– Hillary Clinton
– Rob Kardashian
– Michael Phelps
Top Trending Movies
– “Deadpool”
– “Suicide Squad”
– “Finding Dory”
– “The Revenant”
– “Captain America Civil War”
Top Trending “Near me” or “Nearby”
– “bojangles near me”
– “waffle house near me”
– “cookout near me”
Because if you have a Bojangles’, Waffle House and Cookout nearby, what else do you need, really?
Photo: Mark Hames
This story was originally published December 14, 2016 at 11:01 PM with the headline "What do Charlotte’s top Google searches in 2016 say about the city?."