REVEALED: What the Swiss are most interested in
From how old their country is to classic recipes for local staples, the internet has helped reveal exactly what the Swiss are interested in.
With much of our lives lived online, Google search terms provide a window to see the year just passed. Fortunately or unfortunately, it’s probably a pretty accurate one.
As with our list of most-searched Italian terms from 2018 - which included ‘what is sexism?’ - these lists show that people tend to be themselves when they know the question is just between themselves and Google.
While some of the questions seem self explanatory - of course people from Switzerland will be searching for Roger Federer - others were a little surprising.
Then there were some which were downright concerning - particularly when it comes to knowledge about Switzerland (i.e. the country we live in).
Perhaps the only good news then is if you feel you don’t know much about Switzerland, you’re not the only one.
MORE: Top Swiss words for 2018
Most searched word in 2019: Wimbledon
Ranking just after cheese and chocolate - and these days maybe even ranking before - Roger Federer is synonymous with Switzerland. So it’s perhaps no surprise that the most searched term for 2019 was Wimbledon - and more specifically the 2019 Wimbledon final.
Image: Depositphotos
Novak Djokovic triumphed over Federer that day in what some have called the best grand slam final ever - so while it was disappointment for Swiss fans, it remains the most searched term of the year.
Wimbledon was followed by: iPhone 11, Notre-Dame, Karl Lagerfeld and the ATP finals (where Federer made it to the semis).
Read all about it, read all about it
What about the top headlines in Switzerland in 2019? In first place was Swiss singer Luca Hänni, who represented Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest, finishing fourth.
The other major headlines of the year were the Swiss election (second place), Federer versus Djokovic (fourth) and June’s Women’s Strike in sixth.
Hänni also topped the list of most searched for Swiss personalities, followed by Swiss rapper Loredana and, of course, Roger Federer.
Questions please
As with any list of google terms, by far the most fun are the questions - which Google breaks down into ‘how’ and ‘what’ categories.
The most asked ‘how’ question of 2019? ‘How long is the Swiss heatwave in 2019?’ The mid-July heatwave was one of the hottest in memory.
As we reported in July, besides just being hot, the sustained period of heat was likely to have unprecedented effects on snow and glaciers in the longer term.
Die #Hitzewelle meldet sich: Mit 34.7°C wurde in #Sion der heute höchste Wert verzeichnet, gefolgt von #Visp mit 33.1°C.
Mehr Infos dazu gibt es in unserem Communiqué:https://t.co/ZMJM4Uw701
(cs)@Blickch @20min @nau_live @watson_news @Tamedia @ringier_ag @NZZ @azmedien pic.twitter.com/mgVYYeoIyF
— MeteoNews (@MeteoNewsAG) July 22, 2019
Further down the list however was where things started to get a little worrying. The top ten included such rudimentary questions like ‘How old is Switzerland?’, ‘How many people live in Switzerland?’, ‘How many people are there in the world?’, and ‘How many cantons are there in Switzerland?’
For those playing at home, the answers are as follows. Switzerland is 728 years old (Old Confederacy) or 171 years old (New Confederacy), Switzerland has roughly 8.5 million people as of 2019, the world has 7.5 billion as of 2019 - and there are 26 cantons in Switzerland as of 2019.
Yeah, we googled the answers.
As for ‘what’ categories, the most asked question was ‘What are Achselbärte (leaf axels)?’ We didn’t know what these were either - so we took a, ahem, leaf out of Switzerland’s book and searched ourselves.
Achselbärte are the places where leaf veins branch off from the stems of a leaf. Now you know, Switzerland.
“Was sind Achselbärte?” - Schweizerinnen und Schweizer haben sich dieses Jahr in der Pflanzenkunde weitergebildet und besonders häufig nach der Bedeutung von Achselbärten gesucht https://t.co/U3BBGEbTgA #YearInSearch
— Google Schweiz (@Google_CH) December 11, 2019
The other hot ‘what’ questions of 2019 were ‘what makes ginger spicy?’, ‘what do tick bites do?’, ‘what do bladder infections do?’, and ‘what is Pfingsten (Pentecost)?’
International cinema
Switzerland may be famously neutral, but Swiss residents have always kept themselves up on world events - giving some of the lists a true international character.
The most-searched films - Joker, Avengers Endgame, Green Book, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Captain Marvel - are all Hollywood features. It’s not until place eight where a Swiss movie comes in, with the documentary on Swiss conservationist and explorer Bruno Manser (Die Stimme des Regenwaldes) is featured.
Swiss flavours
The final list of Google search terms for 2019 were recipes, which included some Swiss staples as well as some international classics.
The top five most searched recipes were: Älplermagronen, Rhubarb recipes, Lasagne Bolognese recipes, omelette recipes and zucchini recipes.
For anyone who wants to check out the complete list, Google have put together a top ten list in every category for Switzerland in 2019 - in German.
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica}
p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px; font: 12.0px Times; color: #0000e9; -webkit-text-stroke: #0000e9}
p.p4 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #758795; -webkit-text-stroke: #758795; background-color: #ffffff}
p.p5 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #758795; -webkit-text-stroke: #758795; background-color: #ffffff; min-height: 14.0px}
p.p6 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke: #758795}
p.p7 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke: #758795; min-height: 14.0px}
p.p8 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #758795; -webkit-text-stroke: #758795}
span.s1 {text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none}
span.s2 {font-kerning: none}
span.s3 {font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff}
Comments
See Also
With much of our lives lived online, Google search terms provide a window to see the year just passed. Fortunately or unfortunately, it’s probably a pretty accurate one.
As with our list of most-searched Italian terms from 2018 - which included ‘what is sexism?’ - these lists show that people tend to be themselves when they know the question is just between themselves and Google.
While some of the questions seem self explanatory - of course people from Switzerland will be searching for Roger Federer - others were a little surprising.
Then there were some which were downright concerning - particularly when it comes to knowledge about Switzerland (i.e. the country we live in).
Perhaps the only good news then is if you feel you don’t know much about Switzerland, you’re not the only one.
MORE: Top Swiss words for 2018
Most searched word in 2019: Wimbledon
Ranking just after cheese and chocolate - and these days maybe even ranking before - Roger Federer is synonymous with Switzerland. So it’s perhaps no surprise that the most searched term for 2019 was Wimbledon - and more specifically the 2019 Wimbledon final.
Image: Depositphotos
Novak Djokovic triumphed over Federer that day in what some have called the best grand slam final ever - so while it was disappointment for Swiss fans, it remains the most searched term of the year.
Wimbledon was followed by: iPhone 11, Notre-Dame, Karl Lagerfeld and the ATP finals (where Federer made it to the semis).
Read all about it, read all about it
What about the top headlines in Switzerland in 2019? In first place was Swiss singer Luca Hänni, who represented Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest, finishing fourth.
The other major headlines of the year were the Swiss election (second place), Federer versus Djokovic (fourth) and June’s Women’s Strike in sixth.
Hänni also topped the list of most searched for Swiss personalities, followed by Swiss rapper Loredana and, of course, Roger Federer.
Questions please
As with any list of google terms, by far the most fun are the questions - which Google breaks down into ‘how’ and ‘what’ categories.
The most asked ‘how’ question of 2019? ‘How long is the Swiss heatwave in 2019?’ The mid-July heatwave was one of the hottest in memory.
As we reported in July, besides just being hot, the sustained period of heat was likely to have unprecedented effects on snow and glaciers in the longer term.
Die #Hitzewelle meldet sich: Mit 34.7°C wurde in #Sion der heute höchste Wert verzeichnet, gefolgt von #Visp mit 33.1°C.
— MeteoNews (@MeteoNewsAG) July 22, 2019
Mehr Infos dazu gibt es in unserem Communiqué:https://t.co/ZMJM4Uw701
(cs)@Blickch @20min @nau_live @watson_news @Tamedia @ringier_ag @NZZ @azmedien pic.twitter.com/mgVYYeoIyF
Further down the list however was where things started to get a little worrying. The top ten included such rudimentary questions like ‘How old is Switzerland?’, ‘How many people live in Switzerland?’, ‘How many people are there in the world?’, and ‘How many cantons are there in Switzerland?’
For those playing at home, the answers are as follows. Switzerland is 728 years old (Old Confederacy) or 171 years old (New Confederacy), Switzerland has roughly 8.5 million people as of 2019, the world has 7.5 billion as of 2019 - and there are 26 cantons in Switzerland as of 2019.
Yeah, we googled the answers.
As for ‘what’ categories, the most asked question was ‘What are Achselbärte (leaf axels)?’ We didn’t know what these were either - so we took a, ahem, leaf out of Switzerland’s book and searched ourselves.
Achselbärte are the places where leaf veins branch off from the stems of a leaf. Now you know, Switzerland.
“Was sind Achselbärte?” - Schweizerinnen und Schweizer haben sich dieses Jahr in der Pflanzenkunde weitergebildet und besonders häufig nach der Bedeutung von Achselbärten gesucht https://t.co/U3BBGEbTgA #YearInSearch
— Google Schweiz (@Google_CH) December 11, 2019
The other hot ‘what’ questions of 2019 were ‘what makes ginger spicy?’, ‘what do tick bites do?’, ‘what do bladder infections do?’, and ‘what is Pfingsten (Pentecost)?’
International cinema
Switzerland may be famously neutral, but Swiss residents have always kept themselves up on world events - giving some of the lists a true international character.
The most-searched films - Joker, Avengers Endgame, Green Book, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Captain Marvel - are all Hollywood features. It’s not until place eight where a Swiss movie comes in, with the documentary on Swiss conservationist and explorer Bruno Manser (Die Stimme des Regenwaldes) is featured.
Swiss flavours
The final list of Google search terms for 2019 were recipes, which included some Swiss staples as well as some international classics.
The top five most searched recipes were: Älplermagronen, Rhubarb recipes, Lasagne Bolognese recipes, omelette recipes and zucchini recipes.
For anyone who wants to check out the complete list, Google have put together a top ten list in every category for Switzerland in 2019 - in German.
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica} p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px; font: 12.0px Times; color: #0000e9; -webkit-text-stroke: #0000e9} p.p4 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #758795; -webkit-text-stroke: #758795; background-color: #ffffff} p.p5 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #758795; -webkit-text-stroke: #758795; background-color: #ffffff; min-height: 14.0px} p.p6 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke: #758795} p.p7 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke: #758795; min-height: 14.0px} p.p8 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #758795; -webkit-text-stroke: #758795} span.s1 {text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none} span.s2 {font-kerning: none} span.s3 {font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff}
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.