San Francisco’s top searches of 2023 include OpenAI, Taylor Swift and more

What did San Francisco search for on Google in 2023? The top 25 searches cover a wide range of topics—from the local to the international. Searches reveal interesting details about what is on the minds of people in a certain city or region. You might be surprised to see which sports figures were of keen interest to people here, and even what languages people were searching in.

Below, take a look at San Francisco's queries, beginning with the most-searched terms at the top.

Standing for Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer, ChatGPT was launched by OpenAI on Nov. 30, 2022. ChatGPT kicked off an artificial intelligence awakening that continues to have plenty of steam heading into 2024. The second most popular search was the same— except with a space between "Chat" and "GPT." Nationally, “ChatGPT” and “Chat GPT” were also the top two searches. 

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On Jan. 2, 2023, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest after making a tackle on Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins. The event took place on Monday Night Football and led to the game being canceled and not continued by the NFL. 

First going live in September 2022, Temu gained popularity in 2023 as a marketplace consumers can get heavily-discounted goods directly from China.

Released on July 21, the Barbie movie—starring Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling and more—has made more than $1.25 billion worldwide.

On July 15, soccer superstar Lionel Messi signed with Inter Miami CF of Major League Soccer. 

In San Francisco, and around the United States, the weather is one of the most popular things people search for on Google.

San Francisco’s OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, made waves early in the year with their product and late in the year for drama involving CEO Sam Altman.

Another weather-related search, high winds bring storms and can quickly spread wildfires. 

Character AI is a chatbot service that allows user to create characters with unique personalities. The mobile app was downloaded more than 1.5 million time in the first week following its release. 

Based on the video game by the same name, The Last of Us, starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, was a hit series for HBO in 2023.

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Like Wordle, Connections is a popular puzzle game from The New York Times.

The 38-year-old Ramaswamy is a candidate for the Republican Party nomination in the 2024 presidential election.

First Republic Bank, based in San Francisco, was among the banks that collapsed in March.

The 15th-most popular search in the San Francisco area was “Precio del dolar hoy en Mexico”—which translated to English means “price of the dollar today in Mexico.”

On June 2, Zipair, the low-cost arm of Japan Airlines, announced service to San Francisco International Airport.

Following an attack on Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, Israel, Palestine and the Gaza Strip have remained of heightened interest across San Francisco and the United States.

Taylor Swift’s tour was a hot topic all of 2023, and her romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has put the superstar singer in front of a completely new NFL demographic.

Despite a disappointing 2022-23 NBA season, the Los Angeles Lakers were the second-highest sports-related search in the San Francisco area. (Don't tell the Warriors.)

Popular in the teaching community, Blooket provides children with math puzzle games that are meant to be more exciting than the traditional curriculum. 

A different variation of the 15th-most popular search, “dólar a peso Mexicano” means “dollar to Mexican peso” in English.

Rihanna performed at the Super Bowl LVII halftime Show in February, and welcomed her second son with rapper ASAP Rocky in August.

Canva is an online graphic design platform based in Australia that continues to gain popularity in the United States.

With the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings nearby, the NBA standings were of interest to people in San Francisco throughout 2023.

Earthquakes remain a constant in San Francisco and California life as people continue to prepare for the “Big One.”