‘Euro 2021’ tops list of Google searches in Belgium this year

The most terms searched in Google in Belgium in 2021 were ‘Euro 2021’ and ‘Jupiler Pro League’. If you are not a football fan and find that rather disappointing, no worries: ‘Tomorrow’s weather’, ‘Roland Garros’ and QVAX round out the top five.

It was, however, a sport crazy year, with ‘Olympic Games’ and ‘Tour de France’ also high on the list. To that end, the most searched athlete was gymnastics gold medallist Nina Derwael and the most searched Red Devil was Eden Hazard.

The most popular name for a politician to be entered into Google was prime minister Alexander De Croo, followed not surprisingly by federal health minister Frank Vandenbroucke and federal interior minister Annelies Verlinden.

Google releases search trends per country every year, as well as global trends. The results for Belgium take the country’s three national languages into account. (So not English.)

The top ‘what is’ question was in Dutch – what is broodfokker. To save you from Googling it now yourself, we will tell you: It is a puppy mill. The search term became popular when young Flemish YouTube stars Michiel and Céline inadvertently bought a puppy from such a place. They came under fire, and everyone learned what a horrible business the mass production of puppies is.

The next most-popular ‘what is’ question was ‘what is woke’, and the third was ‘what is PFOS’, a reflection of one of the biggest environmental disasters Belgium has ever faced – the company 3M’s poisoning of soil and water in the Antwerp area with the cancer-causing chemical.