 Welcome back. I'm wondering if you're aware of how many Nigerians googled how many words last this year. Yes, still on. I mean, the word Google has become a word. It just means a lot of things. It's not just about a company, but it's not a verb. When they say Google something, it just simply means you enter the Google search engine and search for any word. So that's how powerful this company alphabet, aka Google is. Google announced the results of its 2022 year in search. So they call it revealing the most searched terms of people, actors, musicians, topics, questions, and more that capture the interests of Nigerians the most throughout this year. Generally, the African cup of nations, Afgan, Oxlade, Casimero, Will Smith, Queen Elizabeth Finness, Lyrix, and Niko Lakbo as a movie, Booga let the trends on search. But in the entertainment sphere, you had the likes of Oxlade born in Kufu Riji or Laito after a man who was embroiled in a sex tape scandal which topped the list of Nigerian entertainers and even featured in other categories like the top 10 trending people of 2022. Entertainment features prominently as the industry held its own on the list of top trending musicians. You know, as I said, Oxlade was there, but he's also on the list of top trending generally. But let's look at musicians. Oxlade was number one. He had a sake, mercy. I'm sure he can relate to that. Black Sheriff, my Ghanaian brother was also there. Portable, Zazu Zair. Leo T, Jay, Ruga, Kweku the Traveler, that's still Black Sheriff, Buju, Angelik Kijo, DJ Waike, were all trending in the entertainment sector. Should we go to politics? No, I'm sure if I ask you, who trended in politics you will be able to tell. We'll look at that as we go on. But joining us this morning I'm pleased to say, tell us and make sense of this is the communications and public relations manager West Africa for Google Taiwo Kola Ogunlade. Taiwo, good morning to you and thank you very much for your time. Good morning. Thank you for having me. Why does Google or Alphabet come up with this report, the year in search? What's the motive? So the year in search is, first of all, the year in search, thank you very much for having me first. The year in search compiles the moments, the people, the topics, the events and the places that capture the attention every year. And just as search helps people explore and discover a world of information, there's so many other ways to also explore what people are interested in and what we call the zeitgeist of the times. And year in search is that. It's at that time of the year where we're able to just stop, take a look at what has captured our attention during the year, and especially at the end of the year, people begin to plan for the new one. And just release that list and help people take a look at what they've been searching for through the years, through the year, what the top moments are, what the interest and concerns are, and help people make a plan for the coming year. And that's where we do it. Google itself, mission at Google is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful to everyone. And in the end, search in itself is not an end. It's a milestone end. It's helping people acquire knowledge, acquire information to make themselves better, to improve themselves. And many times it's usually just good to be able to take a look at what has gone on and help people be able to plan for the future. Okay, but when you juxtapose to other climes, you find that it's a big difference. For instance, there are also some statistics that have been put out that most search topics in Google for 2022. In other climes, you have the Haaland 2022, Warriors and the Celtics. You have Ukraine, and Kanto, you know, all of us are dead. So I'm trying to understand what's a disparity, you know, with what we have in Nigeria and other climes. In the end, it comes down to what a people are interested in. We are very different people and we're very unique, right? And I think that that's one of the things that technology does. The aim of technology is to help you get access, regardless of who you are, regardless of what your interests are, regardless of what you love, right? If you love sports, if you love technology, if you love music, if you love, I mean, I heard you were just talking about Oxlade. If you had, I mean, whatever it is that your interests are, it will align. And when I joined Google in 2011 versus now, even the interests that have been displayed by Nigerians has drastically changed. And I've seen how Nigerians now go on Google to search for really, really critical topics, things around the elections, you know, which you mentioned earlier, things around politics, sports, technology, and all sorts of things that Nigerians go on. In the end, we want to be able to help people find access and get the knowledge that they need at the time that they need it. So it's going to be different, you know, as much as people are different, as much as our interests are different, these things are going to continue being different. As to Google here is such a reliable way to know what the generality of Nigerians are looking for or thinking about or talking about questions on the minds of the majority of Nigerians bearing in mind that most people spend more time on social media websites or social media apps rather than on the internet, you know, on the browser. Let's call it that. For instance, Chrome, where, you know, Google will be the lead search engine. And some use other browsers as well. But people can also search for topics on Twitter. They can search for topics on them on Facebook. It might not lead you to websites, but it gets you to some information. So how powerful is Google in determining or telling us what people are thinking about, talking about, and searching for generally? So people come on Google. On our platform, we have billions of searches every year, including those from Nigerians. And I think that that piece of data set is rich enough where you find people going on Google to conduct billions of searches every month, leading to billions of searches every year. That data set enough. I think it's a rich enough data set to be able to say, this is what is happening. And the list that we pull every year, the year in search list is a list of the top trending searches. It's what, and when you consider what a trend is, it's what has spiked this year versus last year, right? So for instance, iPhone 14 was trending this year, even though it's a new time. It wasn't trending last year, right? Oxlade, the most top trending Nigerian on the search list this year was trending this year for specific reasons, right? And, you know, so it's always going to be that way, right? The data set itself tells you people come online and people go everywhere. They go to different platforms to conduct searches. The year in search is what has been trending in Nigeria on Google in this particular year. So, but in all of this, for instance, we, like you rightly mentioned Oxlade, and we know that, you know, for specific reason why that was actually a trend was because of, you know, some tape that was actually out there. So can we categorically say that, you know, this is really the interest of the people? Well, it's just born out of curiosity. Curiosity is an interest, right? It's what people want. At the end of the day, it comes down to the questions that people are asking, right? Who is this individual? What is he? What is he? What are his interests? What does he do? Why are people searching for him, right? And I think the, I'd say this way. One of my favorite quotes by Isaac Newton, it says, I see further because I stand on the shoulder of giants. And I think that that encapsulates what search does. Search is getting access to the knowledge that is provided by the entire world in one tiny device. You go on it, you ask those questions regardless of what it is. Sometimes it's not even anything we know put through to an artist. So for instance, Peter Albee is the second top trending Nigerian on the Google search list this year. Peter Albee is a presidential candidate. There are so many people wondering why him? What makes him qualified? What are his antecedents? You know, what's his person like? What does he love? Where has he been to? And those sort of questions are really, really important. You know, people need to ask questions before they can make decisions. When you make, when you ask better questions, when you get better answers, your options just become a lot more wider. And that's why we're very excited about how our platform helps to, helps people find answers. You know, and helpfulness is something that is something that we're very eager to sort of promote and how our tools help people become better versions of themselves, helps them find answers and helps them learn. So I mean, it's quite dicey here, but I'm still also trying to ask you and understand if you look at, you know, 2022, a lot has actually happened. Several incidents, you know, people, a lot of things have happened. And one would begin to think that, for instance, jackpot is, you know, one phenomenon that has been on the front boner, you know, for 2022. And I'm just surprised that that hasn't, you know, topped the search, you know, how to jackpot, how to, you know, leave the country. If you also look at the issue of, you know, inflation, inflation has been such a very, you know, major phenomenon for us as a country. Some people will begin to coin it in different languages, hardship, difficulty, you know, increase in the price of good, some other issues, you know, the naira and what have you. So I'm just wondering why this very, very pressing issues have not really dominated the search engine. Well, rather, you have others, which also have happened, not to say that they haven't really happened. So I'm wondering, is it really that these are the needs of the people or people are just really curious, they just want to find out? I think the one thing, the one thing one would need to be careful about is, you know, we need to be careful about assuming what we think people want or what we think people know or what we think are the trending topics. And the list that we have this year is very reflective, is very data reflective. It's not, we're not assuming, it's not some people sitting in an office and saying, this is what people are interested in. These are actual searches conducted by human beings. And these are questions that people are asking. And if you look at the list, you would see that there are certain things that are very clear. One is you would find that sports is a big deal for Nigerians. Two, you would find that a lot of international occurrences and incidents, issues around Ukraine, issues around Russia, one of the top questions that people are asking is who is Vladimir Putin, for instance. And a lot of these international issues are very topical for Nigerians as well. And this is not to say people are not asking questions about how to travel. But the list only gives you the list of the top 10 trending lists. So how to travel is probably maybe somewhere in that list, maybe further down the line. But we usually would suffice the top 10 lists because again, that's the amount of time we probably have. You would see the World Cup was trending, Afghan was trending. You would see on the list of top people, you would see Lisandro Martinez, Casemiro. It tells you that Nigerians are very interested in sports. So a lot of these things, as much as, and I'm usually very careful not to discount, the questions people are asking. Again, these searches come, they come very at the spot of the moment for a lot of people at the point where they have that question in their mind. Maybe it's to settle an argument with a friend. Maybe it's because they help them and they just want to find out. Maybe it's just because they want to improve themselves. People search for different reasons. It's not our place and we don't decide what to go search for. The list only shows this is what people have been searching for. And it's not based on guesswork. This is actual data and actual stats that show these searches and this behavior. All right. Thank you, Tau. I mean, Google has been at the center of controversy as far as privacy issues are concerned. I believe that this data brings again to the fore privacy issues. I mean, why should my search be on Google's database? Why should I not have it private to me? Is Google not further crossing the red line, as it were, with data privacy coming up with such and keeping storing such data? I think the question of data privacy is entirely different from this conversation. These are very anonymized data. You don't know who's conducting these searches. You don't know. These searches come on the platform. And I think it's when people go on Google, to find information and to find knowledge and to learn about what's going on in the world around them to understand better. And it's also in the same vein that we released this list to help people get answers to what are the top questions that people are asking in certain geographies, in certain locations. It's in the vein. It's in the militia of Google to be able to provide knowledge and to provide information and to help people learn. So I think that these are very entirely different platforms. All our platforms are very, we take our commitment to privacy very seriously and across our different platforms. A lot of people, a lot of things that people do are very anonymous. The thing is that, yeah, what we hear certain interject here is that Google compiles individual search logs. You compile individual search logs containing information about what we're searching for. And that information is meant to be private to me. I don't want what I'm searching for to be compiled and stored in your database. Some will say these searches and this data, of course, are sold to businesses and business interests can use them for advertising purposes. So should Google really, shouldn't Google be having a second thought about storing individual search logs? Wow, I get it. And using the information, giving the information to the corporate world to say, look at this is where you can make your money. It's all about money. I get the sense you're reading this off some platform. I'm not reading this off anywhere. Even if I am, these are the issues. We do have privacy controls across all our products. People can choose how you want Google to store your information, how you want your information to be used. You can choose to wipe them. A default across all our different platforms and all our different tools is that it automatically wipes the sort of information that you don't want online. But this is an entirely different story from a year in search. And I think it's the same way you would go on every different social media platform and see what is trending, what is, it's the information. But I'm sure you're aware, Taiwo, I'm sure you're very aware, even though you accuse me of taking this off somewhere. But this is the truth that Google has been criticized for collecting data about internet users. You have been criticized for aggressive tracking and disclosing too much information to governments for a very long time with heavy concern coming from Google and analytics in recent time. We can look at what's going on in China, but we don't have time to go into that. In Austria, there was a decision by the Austrian data protection authority last year, December, being Europe's first decisive move against Google analytics, and it's raised a lot of concern. I know you were aware of that when it happened. It raised a lot of concern. So if you're compiling logs of user data as such preferences and all that, even if you say you wipe it off, but it's there, you've given the results. So should you be keeping these disinformation? Because people are moving to such engines that ensure your privacy, they don't keep in anything at all. As I said before, we have privacy controls across all our different products, and people do have power. I really do wish we had the time to go into all the privacy controls that people have, but people do have the control to decide exactly which part of the information is shown and what part of the information is not. That's an entirely different conversation from here in search, which is entirely anonymized. It shows these are the top searches in a specific region. It's entirely different, and you mentioned earlier about Jack Ma being a thing. Yes, Jack Ma is a thing, but you don't see it anywhere in here, because these are not private, these are not information that is private to certain people. It's also the same as when you go on certain social media platforms and you see these are the things that are trending in that area. The entire world leaves around information and leaves around knowledge, right? And that's what Google provides. Our platform helps people get access to information that they need at certain times, and at the end of the year, we anonymize all that data and we pick the list of what are the top searches in specific countries or in specific areas, and that's what you see there. Some of the... Yes, how then do we explain the fact that almost all searches from Africa, most times you have results generated from the United States and France, and just to say that local content is just a few African countries that really put out that local content. So for every time you have a search from Africa, content are not really almost generated from Africa, why start? I don't understand the question, could you take it again? So now it's reported that almost all internet searches, especially from Africa, you get the results emanating in terms of content from the United States and France, and just a few of African countries actually get to put out that content. What I'm talking about, the question is about local content. So if you're searching for a thing, it should emanate from Africa. But most of searches from Africa doesn't really come out from Africa in terms of the result, it comes out from other countries. Do you understand what I mean? That's not necessarily correct. I think your analysis is a bit flawed, in that you'd see a lot of the searches, you take a look at the top trending searches, for instance, and you've seen some of them. As you strike, for instance, you're not going to get results about as you strike from Russia. It's going to have to come in from Nigeria, and these are things that Nigerian media organizations, Nigerian people with websites, or Nigerians have put online themselves. So again, it comes down to what people are looking for and what sort of content is available online for that sort of information. And the work that we do at Google is make sure, again, it aligns with our mission at the company to organize this world's information and to make it accessible for people to find them at the point where they need them. So yes, there are some things that you go, you search for, and it will give you a result that was put in by someone like maybe an organization based in the West or based in South Africa or based in Kenya, but there are also a lot of other information that is put online. We put a lot of work on relevance and making sure that the information that people find online at a certain time are useful for them and that it makes sense to them. A search trend like Buga, right? It's entirely Nigerian, created by Nigerian. It's a dance step created by Nigerian. Pitaube, Nigerian as well. Oxlade, Nigerian. AssuStrike, Nigerian. And a lot of these different searches are very Nigerian. Portable, Nigerian. Little Tigian, Nigerian. Ruga, Nigerian. And you can make these sort of conversations and you can extend them on and on and on. The important thing here, and to bring it back home, the important thing here is that we're excited that Nigerians are going on Google to search for information, to improve themselves, to make themselves get the knowledge to take them to the next level. And I think that over the years, search trends has shown that and how the kind of information that Nigerians are searching for have become even more refined. And it's very reflective of the times as well. The world is going through a period in which there's a war that is affecting economies globally. Nigerians are asking questions why, right? There's a strike that kept students home for over eight months. Nigerians went on Google and are searching for AssuStrike updates and Assu. We have to go. I think we'll look for time to look at the privacy issues, which you said of course you don't have enough time for. But it's interesting to know what Nigerians have been thinking about, talking about, and searching about. And of course the conversations that are being had. We want to thank you very much for your time. Thank you so much. All right. Taiwo Kola Ogunladeyes Communications and Public Relations Manager, West Africa of Google. And that's the size of that conversation. We have more ahead.