UPDATE: A few weeks after this post, Naver went ahead and posted a more traditional, full length search results review. I don't have time right now to incorporate that info, but may add it later. In the meantime you can see it here:
Original post below.
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Naver has released their Top Trending keyword searches in Korea for 2022. These are keywords that saw particular growth over the past year.
What makes these the top "trending" terms for 2022 is that all the words on this list were searched less than a million times each in 2021, but more than a million times each in 2022. So these are terms that were noticeably more popular to search for this year compared to last year. I guess this is meant to illustrate or capture the particular zeitgeist of Korea in 2022. And all are based on mobile, not desktop, searches.
Makes sense. But sadly, there's a lot to be desired from this year's list.
Now I'm going to give my two cents (i.e. my 10 won) about the list. So scroll down if you are here just for the list.
Complaint: Not well organized like previous years
The list is simply a massive dump of keyword searches. No clear indication of which were explosively more popular this year compared to being just mildly more popular. And unlike in previous years, the list wasn't cleanly divided up by particular month of popularity, or even by categories. We're told that the list includes searches from various categories:
- society
- culture
- economy
- lifestyle
- entertainment
- movies
- dramas
- webtoons
- sports
This is mostly due to the way Naver released the list. For "fun" they want you to take a 10 question multiple-choice quiz to test your knowledge of what was popular this year.
For example, my first quiz question was:
What was 2022's most common search term for "nearby"?A. Nearby restaurantsB. Nearby coffeeshopsC. Nearby hair salons
But even after going through this quiz, you aren't shown the actual answers. You're supposed to somehow either know them, or pick them out of this infinite scrolling list of top search terms:
I am presuming that is their actual list, since nothing like it is shown anywhere else on Naver at the moment, and this is what every news article about Naver's Top 2022 searches is referencing. A bit disappointing considering how Naver used to really break down the search terms and, generally, remove a lot of the cruft and fluff that makes up most searches (things like "today's weather" for example, which is always technically the #1 search term). But just dumping them into this list that isn't even a real list is kind of disappointing.
Complaint: Nothing juicy = nothing interesting
Another complaint I have about this list is how absolutely boring it is. Just close this blog post right now. You do not need to proceed. Seriously. Everything that might actually have been interesting, insightful, or really "Korean" has been censored from the results.
In the fine print about the keywords, it says this:
*성인어, 비속어, 사행성, 가상 화폐, 특정 인물, 사건사고 신상, 정치 관련, 브랜드, 기업명, 주가명, 상품명, 특정 사이트, 커뮤니티, 단체 및 기관 등에 해당하는 키워드는 제외
So literally every exciting, interesting, titillating search term has been removed. So in this list of "trending" terms, you will not see:
- adult or sexual terms
- profanity, slang, netspeak
- gambling
- virtual/crypto currency terms
- specific people's names or details
- accident/incidents details
- politics
- brand names, company names, product names
- names of specific sites, communities, etc
Some of that is good to eliminate. Nobody wants to see how YouTube is the real top search term (as it was last year on desktop searches). And we don't need to care about people Navering their online banking site. But the personal names and political issue searches are always great fodder for society/lifestyle understanding. I often tried to comment on these issues and do quick explainers on them in years past.
I suppose with the memory of the Itaewon Crush still fresh in people's minds, they were hesitant to reveal terminology that might associate with that. Not to mention all the political scandals and issues since President Yoon Suk-yeol took office. Still it would be interesting to see what volume of searches issues like these contributed to.
This is why I think this year's list is too watered down to be of much interest.
Top trends are just variations on themes
The full list is below, and I alphabetized it for you since it seemed to be in a random order on the site itself. But you'll notice that very many terms are repetitions on the same idea.
The following are some of the very repetitive types of terms on the list which make up the majority of the trending keywords:
- *City Name* + "restaurants"
- Maps of subway lines and areas
- MBTI profiles
- Tourism destinations (Japan, Guam, Jeju, hotels, swimwear, etc)
- COVID-related terms (masks, assistance money, etc)
- Movies and dramas (Attorney Woo, Hansan: Rising Dragon, Twentyfive-Twentyone, etc)
That pretty much describes the whole list. Aside from these mentioned above, there are only a few scattered and more specific items, like sports events, news events (using Western ages, North Korean missiles, etc) and so on. You could stop reading here too.
But if you want the list in its entirety, at least as much of it that I could scrape, here you go. I'm not going to translate every single one of these. You can Papago or Google the list yourself and get a great idea of every term. If Google returns a translation that seems weird or you don't fully understand, it's likely going to be just the title of a movie or drama. Seriously. All the goodies were censored out.
Here you go. Remember, these are alphabetical order, not order of popularity.
Top Trending Naver Searches in Korea for 2022
2022 네이버 연말결산
- 2021-2022 프리미어리그
- 2022 LoL 미드 시즌 인비테이셔널
- 2022 베이징 동계올림픽
- 2022 카타르 월드컵
- 2022 프로야구 순위
- 2022-2023 UEFA 챔피언스리그
- 2022년 삼재 띠
- 3호선 노선도
- 4호선 노선도
- 7호선 노선도
- ENFP 특징
- ENTJ
- ENTP
- ESFJ 특징
- ESTJ
- ESTP
- INTJ
- INTP
- ISFJ 특징
- ISFP 특징
- ISTJ
- ISTP
- MBTI 성격 테스트
- MMCA 이건희 컬렉션
- MZ세대
- NFT
- 가는 길 찾기
- 갈비탕
- 강남역
- 강수 영상
- 개천절
- 거리두기 조정안
- 거제 가볼 만한 곳
- 건대 맛집
- 결혼작사 이혼작곡3
- 경량 패딩
- 경복궁 야간개장
- 경주 숙소
- 경주 호텔
- 경주 황리단길
- 고속버스 예매
- 공조2
- 공주 날씨
- 괄사
- 괌
- 광장시장
- 광화문 맛집
- 국밥
- 국제 금시세
- 권모술수
- 그 해 우리는
- 근처 미용실
- 금리
- 기상청 사람들: 사내연애 잔혹사 편
- 기장 맛집
- 김치
- 김해공항
- 나의 해방일지
- 냉면
- 네일샵
- 노래방 노래 검색
- 농구
- 닥터 스트레인지: 대혼돈의 멀티버스
- 단양 맛집
- 달러 환율
- 대구 가볼 만한 곳
- 대만
- 대부도 펜션
- 대전 가볼 만한 곳
- 독감예방접종
- 동탄 날씨
- 돼지갈비
- 래쉬가드
- 러시아 우크라이나
- 마녀2
- 마스크 해제
- 만 나이
- 모르는 전화번호 검색
- 목포 가볼 만한 곳
- 몬스테라
- 박스오피스 순위
- 반티
- 방역패스
- 밸런스 게임 질문
- 범죄도시2
- 벚꽃
- 벚꽃 개화시기
- 베트남 환율
- 복숭아
- 볼링장
- 부산역
- 북한 미사일
- 브로커
- 비키니
- 사내맞선
- 사우나
- 사이판
- 산불
- 산소포화도 측정기
- 삼척 가볼 만한 곳
- 새부리형 마스크
- 서른, 아홉
- 서울 전시회
- 서울 호텔
- 서울역 맛집
- 선별 진료소
- 성수 맛집
- 소상공인 방역지원금
- 소상공인 손실보전금
- 속보
- 속초 호텔
- 쇼트트랙
- 수리남
- 수영복
- 수영장
- 순천 맛집
- 스물다섯 스물하나
- 스피드스케이팅
- 시외버스터미널
- 실시간 TV 보기
- 싱가포르
- 싸이 흠뻑쇼 2022
- 쌀국수
- 아스퍼거증후군
- 아이비리그컷
- 아이유 콘서트
- 아쿠아리움
- 아쿠아슈즈
- 악의 마음을 읽는 자들
- 애견카페
- 양양 가볼 만한 곳
- 양양 맛집
- 어게인 마이 라이프
- 여수 펜션
- 여의도 불꽃축제
- 연극
- 염색 샴푸
- 영업시간제한
- 영화예매사이트
- 예금
- 예비군
- 오미크론 증상
- 왜 오수재인가
- 외계+인 1부
- 우대갈비
- 우리들의 블루스
- 운전면허증 재발급
- 울릉도 여행
- 울산 맛집
- 울진 날씨
- 워터밤 2022
- 워터파크
- 원숭이 두창
- 유가
- 의정부 맛집
- 이상한 변호사 우영우
- 이태원
- 이태원 맛집
- 인천공항
- 일본 여행
- 일본 환율
- 일산 날씨
- 일요일 약국
- 임영웅 콘서트
- 작은 아씨들
- 잠실 날씨
- 적금
- 적금 계산기
- 전쟁
- 제20대 대통령 선거
- 제8회 전국동시지방선거
- 제주 맛집
- 제주공항 근처 맛집
- 제주도 관광
- 제주도 비행기 표 예약
- 제천 가볼 만한 곳
- 주유소 가격비교
- 중단발 레이어드컷
- 지금 우리 학교는
- 지하철 시간표
- 쭈꾸미
- 찜질방
- 처서
- 천연가스
- 천원짜리 변호사
- 청년내일저축계좌
- 청년희망적금
- 청와대 관람
- 초단기 강수 예측
- 추앙하다
- 축제
- 춘천 가볼 만한 곳
- 춘천 맛집
- 카이막
- 컬링
- 코로나 격리 기간
- 코로나 생활지원금
- 코로나 신속항원검사
- 코로나 재감염
- 코타키나발루
- 콘서트
- 콩나물국밥
- 쿼카
- 크로스핏
- 탑건: 매버릭
- 태국
- 태풍 힌남노
- 토마토
- 튀르키예
- 트위드 재킷
- 특고·프리랜서 지원금
- 특수 이모티콘
- 파스타
- 파운드 환율
- 퍼스널 컬러진단
- 프랑스
- 플러팅
- 피시방
- 하이볼
- 한국 브라질
- 한국 이집트
- 한국시간
- 한라산 탐방예약
- 한산: 용의 출현
- 항공권 예약
- 햄버거
- 헌트
- 헤어질 결심
- 현재는 아름다워
- 환승연애2
- 환혼
- 황금가면
- 횟집
There you go.
A few things stuck out to me personally.
One is the 아이비리그컷, because I certainly have noticed more and more young guys sporting this haircut, which Google clearly showed me is basically the Matt Damon haircut. Does the Ross from Friends haircut count too?
Another is the relative lack of mention of trot singer Lim Young-woong (임영웅). He appears once under "Lim Young-woong concert" (임영웅 콘서트) but he surely must have more popularity than this. Maybe the rule against including personal names censored more of his results? I doubt many readers will know much about him, but he's a young singer who is CRUSHING the music scene, probably due mostly to his popularity among old people.
Think I'm exaggerating? Take a look at the Top 100 Melon Chart right now:
 |
| Lim Young-woong dominating the Melon charts |
Every highlighted instance is him. I've heard young users are ditching Melon as a music streaming service because it's got so many "old" listeners now. This does give some credence to that idea. But give his silky voice a listen and you'll understand. His YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/mulgogimusiclable) is extremely popular too so it surely can't be only old people enjoying his singing.
Also, "Sunday pharmacies" was a term listed there, probably due to the rise of people managing their own COVID or flu symptoms. I have a post up in English about this issue for those who are interested:
Final thoughts
The main focus of Naver's promotional page isn't the top keyword searches. They made it personalized so that you log in to your Naver account and it reveals a Year End details wrap up, sort of like how Spotify does. It will show you how many Naver Pay points you earned, what types of places you Naver Mapped most, etc. I'm not going to share my results with you, mostly because the number of times I looked up directions to fast food restaurants is too embarrassing to show. Just kidding, it only shows the regions.
It will also compare your results to the national averages, which appear like this:
This reveals that "masks" were the number one item on Naver Shopping, and people tend to read 34 minutes of Naver News articles per week.
But try it yourself to see your personalized results.
Finally, for K-pop fans, check out Naver Vibe's "Rewind" of their own to see chart toppers and your own listening history from 2022: https://vibe.naver.com/2022vibe
Finally, if you liked this list, check out my cooresponding post on 2022's Top Google searches in Korea, which goes into a better category breakdown and offers more commentary.
It's been a pretty good year, overall. Definitely better than last year. Hope you and yours had a good one and thanks for sticking around.
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