Google showcases African American achievements with ‘most searched’ for Black History Month

LOS ANGELES - Google celebrated African Americans ahead of Black History Month with a commercial highlighting who and what was “the most searched.”

The commercial, which showed Beyoncé, John Legend, Prince, Whitney Houston, Maya Angelou and dozens of other notable figures and historic moments, highlighted different categories each person or event was the most searched in.

“We have highlighted individuals and moments from the ‘most searched’ list based on both cultural influence and historical impact, and it’s important to note that this list is not exhaustive of every African American individual who fits the criteria of ‘most searched,’” Google explained in its methodology.

Those topics include the “I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr. for most-searched speech; LeBron James for most-searched athlete; RuPaul for most-searched drag queen; Malcom X for most-searched autobiography; Prince for most-searched guitar solo; and Howard University for the most-searched homecoming, among others.

The data goes as far back as Jan. 1, 2004, which is when U.S. Google search data first became available, and goes up to July 1, 2019 — though Google did note some search data extended to Nov. 1, 2019.

Researchers at Google looked up the most-searched Google Trends history to create the commercial and a website.

The website showcases “the history makers” and provides further explanation into how the searches for categories were done.

In 2018, Google.org committed $25 million to help black and Latinx students develop technical skills for their future careers. As another part of the commitment, Google.org will issue a $3 million grant to the NAACP’s Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) over the next three years.

“ACT-SO is shaping a generation of leaders who will have their own chance to make history,” Google said. “The program gives Black high school students – over 300,000 to date – a platform to bring their ideas to life, compete and begin their journey to becoming leaders in STEM, humanities, business and the arts.”