Google has released their Top Trending searching for South Korea for 2022, and unlike the equivalent Naver list, this one is sorted and includes more specific items. As usual, here is my commentary on each item along with the lists themselves.

These come from a Google Korea blog post, where you can see all of their lists, including Overall top searches, top news searches, top people searches, top K-pop artists, top K-dramas, top movies, and top games. I will only focus on the first 3 lists. So see their post for the entire categories.

As usual, certain search terms have been removed from the list, including anything adult, sensitive, personal, illegal, or superficial.

Overall (종합) Top 10 Trending Google Searches in South Korea for 2022

Overall top domestic search terms in Korea 2022. Image: Google

기후 변화 - Climate change
See my explanation below this list
이상한 변호사 우영우 - Extraordinary Attorney Woo
Popular Korean drama about an autistic attorney
초단기 강수 예측 - Immediate rain forecast
First result when Googling this is a current conditions forecast page from the Korean government (https://www.weather.go.kr/w/image/vshrt/rain.do) so assume people are just lazily Googling to get to this site.
2022 FIFA 카타르 월드컵 - FIFA Qatar World Cup
Don't think I need to explain here, but Korea had a good showing in the World Cup this year but ultimately kicked out after a big loss to Brazil. Coach Bento even got a red card during a match. Overall not a performance to be ashamed of.
이태원 사고 - Itaewon accident
Everyone will remember 2022 as the horrible Halloween event in Itaewon that lead to the crushing deaths of many people. Interesting that 사고 (accident) is the term people were searching instead of 사건 (incident) or 비극 (tragedy). What to call this was an issue which itself was an issue.
토트넘 대 K-League XI - Tottenham vs K-League All-Stars
Friendly match where Son Heung-min and his premiership league team beat the Korean team. Must have felt a little awkward.
수리남 - Suriname
Yes, the country, but in this case, the title of a Korean drug crime drama set there. Notable that the country of Suriname complained about its portrayal in this Korean media. I haven't seen it, but it's on Netflix.
우크라이나 - Ukraine
Of course the war in Ukraine was big, but don't forget the interest in all-around bad-ass Korean ROK Seal YouTuber Ken Rhee taking his team there to fight. Say what you want about him and his motivations, but his combat footage videos were actually pretty compelling.
로스트아크 - Lost Ark
An MMORPG computer game that I don't know anything about.
스승의 날 - Teacher's Day
Perhaps people were looking up which day is Teacher's Day. The Hani has a pretty good idea I think about why this could have been popular this year: 2022 was the first post-pandemic Teachers Day, so kids were actually in school in person for it, rather than doing online classes.

Why would climate change take up such a top spot? It seems like there are two ideas at work. One is the growing interest in ESG (기업의 비재무적 요소인: 환경·사회·지배구조) movement: Environmental, Social, and Corporate governance.

As uncertainty in the global capital markets rises, shareholders are showing greater interest in environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) issues, in addition to standard financial factors such as revenue and operating income. In response to this trend, Korean regulatory and financial supervisory authorities are preparing and implementing various policies to create an investment climate that actively utilizes companies’ ESG information and carries out effective ESG-based investments.
Growing Importance of ESG for Corporations and Related Trends - Kim & Chang

ESG is a way to gauge the long term environmental sustainability of corporations, and these days many investors are using these metrics when choosing where to put their money. Personally I think there are noble reasons for this (investors want to support companies taking environmental initiatives) and selfish reasons for this (investors suspect climate disasters will impact certain companies more than others). Either way, this has become a trend around the world and Korea is going all-in.

Just look at these headlines for a taste:

Makes sense then that climate change issues would be popular searches, though it still seems weird to me to take up the #1 spot.

It may be that it was just heavily accessed enough during Climate Change Week to break into the top "trending" searches? The Korean government ran several promotions and events related to the August 22-28 "Climate Change Week" (기후변화주간) so interest may have peaked heavily at that time.

Climate Change Week events. Image: Korea.kr

Or perhaps people just wanted quick links to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report 2022. Or perhaps Korean Googlers are just more savvy about environmental issues than Naver users.

Top 10 Trending News/Society (뉴스/사회) Google searches in Korea for 2022

Top News/Society search terms in Korea 2022. Image: Google

기후 변화 - Climate change (same as above)
초단기 강수 예측 - Immediate rain forecast (same as above)
이태원 사고 - Itaewon accident (same as above)
우크라이나 - Ukraine (same as above)
스승의 날 - Teachers' Day (same as above)
태풍 힌남노 - Typhoon Hinnamnor
Storm that hit southeastern Korea pretty hard, and led to the temporary closure of the POSCO steel mill.
청년희망적금 - Youth Hope Savings Account
A special installment based savings account focused on lower-income young workers, tax free and up to 10% interest.
소상공인 방역지원금 - Small Business Quarantine Support Fund
A second round of financial support for small businesses intended to mitigate the economic issues caused by COVID lockdowns.
루나 코인 - Luna Coin
Can't believe this wasn't higher on the list. 2022 saw the absolute collapse of Luna/Terra cryptocurrency, which many young Koreans had invested in. The CEO, Do Kwon, is still basically on the run from Korean authorities, hopping around SE Asia and Europe.
포켓몬 빵 - Pokemon bread
Korean bakery corp Samlip hit the jackpot with a re-release of Pokemon snack bread confectionary items. Not so much the bread snacks themselves, but the stickers found inside each pack, led kids and "kidults" to line up for hours to get their hands on Pokemon bread. Second hand markets were filled with the breads at double or higher prices. Never accuse Koreans of doing anything half-heartedly. They love a good run on a trendy item.

Top 10 Trending People (인물) Google searches in Korea for 2022

Top People/Celebrity search terms in Korea 2022. Image: Google

아베 신조 - Abe Shinzo
Former prime minister of Japan who was assassinated this year by a homemade gun fired by a citizen whose mother apparently given up her life savings to the Unification Church (통일교), which supposedly had ties to Abe and his circle. A shocking event all around, with these heavy ties to Korea, so it's not surprising this ranked #1.
윤석열 - Yoon Suk-yeol
Former prosecutor and current President of South Korea. Elected this year in a very close contest against Lee Jae-myung. He and his wife Kim Keon-hee (김건희) have been in the spotlight ever since, as this year saw an unpopular move of the presidential quarters from the famous Blue House to a downtown Defense Ministry building and allegations that his wife plagiarized her grad school thesis. Politics gonna politic.
강수연 - Kang Soo-yeon
Korean actress popular in 1980s-1990s, one of the first Korean starlettes to be awarded among the foreign movie circuit (Grand Bell, Venice, etc). Died of natural causes despite being only in her 50s. Famous for her cute cheek dimples. Somewhat the "Korean Meryl Streep."
송해 - Song Hae
Ultra famous Korean TV presenter. You have absolutely seen him on TV as the old grandpa with the distinctive glasses. Host of, among many other things, the insanely popular and long-running talent show National Singing Contest (전국노래자랑), sort of Korea's Star Search in finding local small-time talent with potential. He died this year after a long, fruitful, interesting life. 소천하셨습니다.
손흥민 - Son Heung-min
Korea's star footballer had a stunning and stellar year playing in the England pros and with his own national team during the 2022 World Cup. We will remember him this year for the distinctive mask he wore during play after a fractured eye socket injury. What a trooper.
박은빈 - Park Eun-bin
The actress who played the titular character Woo Young-woo in this year's most popular TV drama, Extraordinary Attorney Woo.
이은해 - Lee Eun-hae
Scandalous murderer woman, considered a psychopath by many online, who got her "start" in the public eye on a TV charity show many years ago, but who went on today to be known as a "flower snake" who married multiple men for their money. Finally, her last husband was killed by drowning on a trip with Lee and her boyfriend (you read that right). She was given a very rare life sentence in Korea for her heinous and uncaring acts. Her appearance itself was something of a hot topic online too, some feeling she has the "look" of the type of woman the gender warriors love to hate.
이재명 - Lee Jae-myung
Perpetual fixture in Korean politics. Former mayor, governor, presidential candidate, and now representative and head of the Democratic party in Korea. He lost the 2022 presidential race to Yoon Sukyeol but there's no way he was going to just slide into oblivion. He now represents Incheon's Gyeyang district for some reason (pollsters probably figured he'd be a shoe-in to win there). I wouldn't be surprised if he runs again next time too. With his constant political intrigues and scandals (the most practically famous being the Daejang-dong real estate corruption scandal; the most raunchily famous being his choice words to his sister-in-law). He has been on this list for years, and will continue to be so for years to come.
손석구 - Son Seok-goo
Korean actor from the popular romance drama "My Liberation Notes" (나의 해방일지). Although this drama made him extra popular this year, he was also rising from last year's hot military drama "D.P."
프리지아 - Freezia
Real name Song Ji-ah, "Freezia" is a Korean female YouTuber who was famous for depicting her rich "golden spoon" life. She was apparently on the super cheesy Netflix show Singles Inferno too. Famous for her videos showing her massively expensive shopping hauls, she was exposed as a fraud to the glee of many netizens. Like many YouTubers who take time off the platform to "reflect" on their bad actions, she uploaded a video right at the end of the supposed Golden Window before your channel gets demonitized, adding more fuel to the fraudster fire. If you ever wanted to see what a Korean "influencer" looks like, you found her in Freezia.

Google image results for Korean's adorable grandpa, Song Hae 송해 할아버지

Google image results for Park Eunbin, lead actress of Extraordinary Attorney Woo

Freezia, from YouTube capture

Lot of interesting content here to round out the year. To see the lists themselves, including the top movies, K-entertainment, and games, check out Google's trends lists here:

🔗 https://trends.google.com/trends/yis/2022/KR/

Bonus content

Top Google Play Apps in Korea for 2022

As a bonus, here is Google's list of top Play Store apps in Korea for 2022. The top spot overall went to Disney+ which has seen growth here not only for Marvel type content but a surprising amount of original Korean language content, including a drama popular throughout Asia called Snowdrop (설강화) which featured K-pop star Jisoo of Blackpink, but which also was hit with accusations of historical errors.

Naver also made waves here, with their standalone Naver Pay app taking spots in the "Daily Life" and "Most Popular" categories, plus in the WearOS category for Android watches.

Touring apps (tour groups, bookings, airline apps) featured in many spots, and one of the top apps of this year was Doctor Now, which I knew of as a telemedicine solution for Covid patients so they could get an "untact" consultation and medication delivered to their door. But it seems like it's getting more use than I thought. Could be a great solution for parents of young children or the elderly.

See you next year

And finally if you haven't seen it, compare this list with the list of top Naver searches for the year:

🔗 Top Trending Naver Searches for 2022

Been an interesting year. Hope this list helped you make sense of some of the big events that defined it. Thanks for sticking around.

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Top trending Google searches in Korea for 2022 - plus top Korean Google Play and YouTube lists