Social media giants reveal 2021’s top searches in Turkey

ISTANBUL

Google’s annual recap of 2021’s top trending searches in Turkey has shown the most googled word this year was “EBA giriş” (EBA log in), to get access to the website of the state-run Education Information Network (EBA) channel which was set up for students who had to continue education online due to the pandemic.

It was followed by “Squid Game,” a South Korean survival drama streaming television series on Netlfix, and Mesut Özil, a Turkish-German football star who plays for the Istanbul powerhouse Fenerbahçe this season.

Turkish national volleyball player Ebrar Karakurt and Turkey’s Education Minister Mahmut Özer were among other names in the top three in the classification of the most searched names.

In the section of Google’s “How to,” data shows that most of the searches of Turkish people on the engine were related to the pandemic and vaccination.

“How to get a HES code” was the most googled “how to” question which helped people get the code that enables access to health records for the admission of a person to public places in the wake of the pandemic. “How to get a vaccination appointment” and “how to get a vaccination card” were the other most googled questions by most Turks.

Meanwhile, Twitter also released its most shared, liked and talked about topics for the year, with COVID-19 mostly far from people’s minds comparing with the previous year, while forest fires that occurred in the country’s south this summer apparently closer to their hearts and adding to their worries.

The platform has become a place of communication and solidarity on social media for those who wanted to help or needed help while words related to the wildfires were among the most used hashtags on Twitter this year.

While “Survivor Turkey” ranks second among the most used hashtags, Korean Pop fans managed to get their favorite bands to the top of the list.