Having your browser history exposed is one of the most mortifying things that could happen to you, but what can the search term history of the entire country tell us about what people were interested in this past year?
With 2023 coming to a close, exploring Google Trends for Malta reveals what people on the island have spent their time looking up online throughout the past year.
Google splits the way it presents the country’s most popular search terms in two ways: queries – the words people actually typed into Google – and topics – the things Google thought people were trying to search using those terms based on popularity.
The top search queries put to Google from Malta over the past 12 months do not expose anything spectacular about the nation’s internet habits.
At the top is ‘Malta’, followed by ‘weather’, ‘Times’, ‘Times of Malta’ and ‘Google’.
On the face of it, Malta’s top search terms seem to be directly related to the things people are interested in knowing daily – namely the news and the weather.
Weather is the second most popular search topic in Malta, with the top 25 search terms also containing ‘malta weather’ in 6th, ‘windfinder’ at 18th, ‘weather forecast’ in 21st and ‘malta airport’ – whose website includes the Meteorological Office’s weather forecast – in 23rd place.
The results also indicate that search engine users in Malta are keen to keep up with the news, ‘Times of Malta’ is the fourth most popular search topic and ‘News’ is the seventh.
News sites also take up several slots among the top search queries, including ‘Malta Today’ in 11th place and ‘Malta news’ in 12th, ‘TVM’ in 16th place, and ‘BBC’ in 20th place.
Exploring the search topic for ‘Malta’, Google’s data suggests that the term emerges as a top search query because users employ it to anchor their searches specifically to the country. For example, people who searched ‘Malta’ also searched for ‘public transport’ and ‘identity card’.
This is also evident in the top queries made that included ‘Malta’ as part of the search term, which included phrases like ‘Lidl Malta’, ‘Maltapost’ and ‘Malta Lottery’.
AI and a TV show
While this could all be considered standard fare in what the average person living in Malta may Google while going about their day, looking further into the rising topics and search queries – which track which terms saw the most significant growth over time – possibly reveals what captured the public’s imagination last year.
With pundits talking about the incoming AI revolution, it's no surprise that variations of ‘ChatGPT’ were ranked first, second, fifth and 10th among rising search terms.
Respectively, these accounted for a 4,100%, 3,450%, 1250% and 600% increase in searches for terms related to ChatGPT.
But while some of us were asking ChatGPT to invent new historical figures and exposing how easy it is to get the system to spread misinformation, educators were having serious conversations about what the technology means for the future of our education system.
Hot on the heels of AI is ‘Love Island Malta’, which emerged as the third most popular rising search query and saw a 2,250% increase in searches this past year.
The introduction of the UK reality franchise in Malta made a splash with viewers – almost a third of the entire population tuned in to watch.
While contestants shivered in their bikinis as the show aired between May and June, armchair critics were handwringing about the downward slide of local television and modern dating.
Another rising star in Maltese search terms is blogger and former book council chairman Mark Camilleri, who appeared twice in the top 25 terms in 9th and 11th place. Camilleri was behind one of the most memed scandals of the year after he published thousands of WhatsApp chats between independent MP Rosianne Cutajar and businessman Yorgen Fenech.
The leak revealed that the pair shared an intense relationship and shed light on how they could have possibly been trading in influence. Searches for ‘Mark Camilleri blog’ increased by 650% while those for ‘Mark Camilleri’ went up by 550%.
Foreign diaspora leave their mark
The rising search terms also reveal that foreigners living in Malta are evidently impacting search terms.
The term ‘Cricbuzz’ – an Indian cricket news website – ranked 12th in the top rising search terms and saw a 130% increase in search terms over the past year, suggesting that even when far from home, Indians in Malta are still keeping tabs on their favourite teams.
Similarly, the term ‘ipl’, which Google said refers to the Indian Premier League for cricket, saw a 70% increase in searches this year.
Latest census data indicated that some 7% of foreign nationals living in Malta are now from India.
Searches for ‘Euro to INR’ (Indian Rupee) appear twice in the list at 13th and 25th place, representing a 110% increase in searches for the term, while the phrase ‘euro hoy Colombia’ also appears with a 100% increase in search terms.
While foreign nationals may be keeping track of how their wages compare to their home currency, it could also reflect the reported trend of third-country nationals sending money to relatives back home.
Interestingly the phrase ‘tradutor’ is ranked 20th in the list and saw a 70% increase in searches this year. The data suggests this is the phrase that Spanish-speaking people would use to search for an online translation tool and likely refers to Google Translate.
‘Rużarju’ and ‘Simpatiċi’ among Malta’s top YouTube searches Delving into data on YouTube searches reveals that while the internet has opened the country to entertainment from all around the world, the Maltese still appear to carry a flame for homegrown media.
The top searched terms are more generic like ‘song’, ‘movie’ and ‘dance’ followed closely by iPad kid staples like ‘Roblox’, ‘Minecraft’ and ‘Fortnite’ – indicating that Maltese children are not immune to the global phenomenon of watching other people play videogames endlessly online.
However, the term ‘Simpatiċi’ appears in 18th place, suggesting that audiences still go back to the Maltese sitcom, despite it being off air since 2015 after running for 16 years.
Those whose grandparents are militant about watching the 6pm broadcast of the rosary from Lourdes will be happy to learn that the trend hasn’t dropped off in the digital age, with ‘rużarju’ clocking in as the 22nd most searched term on Youtube in Malta.
Looking at the top rising searches also reveals Malta’s long-standing affinity with the Eurovision Song Contest.
‘The Busker’ - Malta’s entry to the contest this year saw a “breakout” in search terms, meaning that searches increased by over 5000% over the past 12 months, followed closely by ‘Tattoo Loreen’ this year’s Eurovision winner, which saw a 3650% spike in searches.
Hot on their heels is ‘Reġina Aidan’, which saw a 3250% increase in searches. Fan-favourite Aidan Cassar was disqualified from the qualifying rounds of the Maltese competition after organisers said he had broken contest rules.
Travel reality show Liquorish, which airs on ONE, also remained a popular search term, enjoying a 650% increasing in searches this year.