Top NJ search trends for May 2023 Marley McAliley, Google Trends Expert

In May, people in New Jersey were searching for a variety of topics on Google. The most searched entertainment topic was the Met Gala, followed by movies like the Little Mermaid and Fast and Furious. In the culture category, Cinco de Mayo and Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month were popular searches. The coronation of King Charles also garnered attention. In the science and technology category, searches about dreams, particularly dreaming about snakes, were trending. Sports searches focused on the NBA playoffs, with the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics being the top teams. Odd news included searches about tipping culture and adulting. Finally, in the recipes category, Memorial Day barbecue foods, specifically pulled pork, were the most searched recipes. Can you believe it's the end of May already and time for us already to take a look back at what you and I and all of our fellow New Jerseyans, what were we Googling the most for the month of May and joining me to take a look back to see what exactly it was we were checking out. Google Trends expert Marlee McAlealy back with us this morning here at RNJ. Marlee, good morning. It's Bert Barron. Welcome back to the program. Great to have you with me this morning. Thanks so much for having me, Bert. Well, let's jump right in and see how well I've been paying attention. It's such a busy month. This was 31 of the busiest days that I can remember. But let's break it down by category and see what were some of the most searched items. We'll begin with the entertainment, and there were so many different things that were happening. I'm thinking about some big movies. We had the Little Mermaid movie, which, of course, was really big. The new Fast and Furious movie. We had the Met Gala. I guess I got to narrow it down to just one thing. I'm going to say it was something maybe with the movies. Marlee, was it the new Fast and Furious movie? Did that lead the way in the entertainment searches for May? No, you were actually very close. It was the Met Gala. What is the Met Gala was a top trending question over the month of May. And as many of us know, it's an annual fundraising gala that's held for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. So a lot of people are interested in what their favorite celebrities are wearing at the event. Who would be attending? Who did come? Who didn't come? All of those kinds of things when it comes to the exciting fashion and trends that come out of that event. Yeah, totally. Who can out fashion who for one evening at a very special event? And interesting connection. I'm not sure if you're aware. There was a carpet store in New Jersey that does the red carpeting for the Met Gala. And for all the big events, the carpet actually comes from New Jersey, Marlee, which is a really cool, interesting little piece of trivia there. Moving on to the culture category. Yeah, that's a pretty neat place. Let's see. Culture. We did have Cinco de Mayo happen, but that was such a long time ago. I'm trying to think if there's anything happened between now and then. Culturally, maybe there's something with Cinco de Mayo or maybe even Memorial Day. Marlee, am I close on that one? You're pretty close. So you're actually spot on with Cinco de Mayo. And then we had a few other culture trends that were taking center stage this month. It was also AAPI or Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. So we saw a lot of searches when it came to Asian culture and then also the coronation of King Charles. There was a lot of search engines around that. So I would say the top three were Cinco de Mayo, AAPI, Heritage Month and the coronation. King Charles happened earlier this month. Why does it feel like six months ago? That's how much has happened between now and then, I think. I know. It really does. It was on May 6th, so a day after Cinco de Mayo. Yeah, it feels like almost a lifetime ago. But it was this month. There's just been a lot going on. I guess so. I forgot what an epic two days that was. Cinco de Mayo and the coronation of a king. And we had like in back-to-back days. I forgot about that. In the next category, science and technology. When I'm not really sure about this one, Marlee, I always go from my old standby, because he's always doing something interesting in the worlds of both science and technology. It had to be Elon Musk and either Twitter and one of his rockets. It had to be something with that for May. So it actually wasn't. And that's funny that you bring that up, because I feel like science is always a random category. And this month it was actually dreams. So top trending over this past month is what does it mean to dream about dot, dot, dot. So people are looking at what does it mean to dream about someone, what does it mean to dream about snakes, your kids falling out, etc. In New Jersey, people are searching what does it mean to dream about snakes the most over the past month. So people are really getting into what their dreams mean and trying to understand if there's any hidden meanings to it. And what's going on with all these random and weird dreams that are coming up. Dreams about snakes. That sounds terrifying. I used to dream about plane crashes once in a while. But dreaming about snakes, no thank you. Now guess what I'm going to dream about now for the next couple of weeks now that you brought that up this morning. My guest is Marlee McAlily, Google Trends expert. And we got the old rewind machine on. We're taking a look at what were the top searches from the state of New Jersey for the month of May using Google, which is a tool that I use every day for so many different things. And also just a quick side note for you Marlee. I recently signed up for the 100 gig of storage on my Google Drive. The free account is 15 gigs. I do so much video production, audio production. I just needed some extra space. $2 a month and I have 100 gigs now? You can't beat that. That's a great offer. That's awesome. Good stuff. That's really awesome. Moving on to sports, let's see. My friend Jimmy Butler just did a number on the Boston Celtics there. Is it the NBA playoffs? Because it's really been fun to watch this run for the Miami Heat. Marlee, was it NBA for May? Oh, absolutely. And you were right there with Jimmy Butler being a top trending player related to the NBA playoffs. So Miami Heat are also the top trending team related to the NBA playoffs, as we just mentioned. They're battling it out with the Boston Celtics in game seven to advance to the NBA finals. So a lot of interest around the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat and the Nuggets as well. All the Chicago Bulls had to do was beat Miami in that last play-in game and none of this would have happened. We wouldn't be talking about the Miami Heat at all, but you just never know. That's why they play the games. You're right. Moving on to odd news, I don't know, how about dreams about snakes? That sounds like odd news to me. What do you have for us in the odd news category for May? Yeah, so I would agree. Dreams about snakes definitely are odd. But we saw some interesting search trends being searched more than ever this month in the U.S. And one of those was, should I tip? So there's a lot of search interest around tipping culture. It was searched at a 15-year high this year. And people are really wondering, you know, how much should I tip? You know, different situations that are appropriate for tipping. Why are certain people asking for tips? Like landlords, for example, that was the number one search when it comes to who's asking for tips. Landlords, I guess, are asking for tips a lot more these days. So a lot of people trying to figure out, you know, what the best practices are when it comes to tipping. And then we saw a lot of search interest around adulting. So search interest in as an adult was also at a record high this month. So people are looking at different things, you know, that are related to being an adult, whether that be getting a joint bank account or moving in with a significant other, how to make friends as an adult, starting a new career as an adult, all kinds of searches around, you know, being an adult in this day and age. Adulting is overrated. How am I going to try to stay a kid as long as I can? This adult thing, I know you get to stay up late and get to eat whatever you want and listen to whatever you want to. But being an adult is grown up, overrated. Marlee, let's stay young and stay kids as long as we can. And what is this now? You have to tip your landlord? You mean the person that you pay the rent to every month, they expect a tip on top of that now? I've never heard of that before. Exactly. I thought that was a shocking one, too. I was like, I tip my landlord by paying my rent every month. But I guess more and more landlords are asking for tips and people are wondering, you know, how they should respond. Is that normal? Should I tip my landlord? So it is interesting to see that, you know, I guess right now a lot of landlords are asking for tips. No, this world is just getting out of control more and more each day, it seems like. We'll wind up our category discussion. In the recipes category, which I'm guessing is going to ride on the coattails, if you will, of Cinco de Mayo, it had to be specialty drinks and specialty recipes for Cinco de Mayo. Pretty close for our recipe searches? So when it came to the culture search, a lot of people were looking at different Cinco de Mayo recipes. As you mentioned, a lot of margaritas and horchata and chilaquiles. But for the top of food and recipes was actually for Memorial Day, which was just this past week. So a lot of people were looking at different Memorial Day barbecue foods. And in New Jersey, people were actually searching recipes for pulled pork the most for a Memorial Day barbecue food. That sounds good. So there we go with our look back there. So I guess to sum up the month of May, it was here's a tip for your landlord, don't have a dream about a snake. You know, maybe that's the best tip I can offer. There you go. Exactly. All right. Marlee McAlily, Google Trends expert. Thanks, as always. It's really so much fun to just look back and see what people were doing online for the month of May. Can't wait to get together and do it again for June. So thank you so much for the time today. Always appreciate it and really enjoy our segment. So thank you again. Yeah, thanks for having me and looking forward to next month.