Philippines’ top searches in 2020, a Yahoo Year in Review

2020 has been one of the most momentous years of the past century. With the Covid pandemic, it kept netizens in the Philippines glued to their devices in search of information, ideas and opinions.

Yahoo’s Year in Review 2020 takes a look at the top happenings, people, and trends that captured the interest of the Philippines’ online community in 2020. Yahoo team analyzes users’ anonymized interest patterns based on what was searched for, read, recommended, and shared. Takes into account a number of factors, including absolute volume and growth from previous periods to see which themes and trends bubble to the surface.

Top newsmakers of 2020:

Taal Volcano was the top searched news in the Philippines this year with its activity in January threatened the lives of nearly a million people across Calabarzon, Metro Manila and some parts of Central Luzon and Ilocos region. Late NBA superstar Kobe Bryant ranked second in the search list as basketball-crazed Philippines reeled from news of his untimely passing.

Local and international politics was also in focus with the US Presidential Elections (3rd) and President Donald Trump (6th), President Rodrigo Duterte (4th) and the Bayanihan Act 2020 (5th), also known as the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, ranked high on users’ searches.

Francis Leo Marcos (7th) for his alleged violation of Optometry Law also grab people's attention.

Filipino celebrities dominated the most searched female celebrities list this year, taking eight out of the 10 top spots. Actress Ivana Alawi whose wildly popular YouTube channel drove her meteoric rise to fame in just a year. Sarah Geronimo ranked second on the list as news of her surprise secret wedding.  Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray’s (3rd) controversial breakup with her ex Clint Bondad also circulated online.

South Korean Oppas dominated half of the spots in the most searched male celebrities list. International popularity with Crash Landing on You, 2020 was a shining year for Hyun Bin (2nd) as well as his commercial deal with telco Smart Communications.  Lee Min-Ho (6th), Park Seo Joon (9th), and Ji Chang Wook (10th) also made the list. Suprisingly, Broadcast journalist and host Raffy Tulfo edged out South Korean male celebrities to take the coveted top spot.

Users turned to sporting events to keep them entertained in the comforts of their homes. The NBA and the PBA Philippine Cup were the top two most searched events in 2020; the latter took users on a rollercoaster ride with several changes in its schedule before resuming in October. The Australian Open (3rd), French Open (5th), and US Open (9th) secured three spots on the list. Other major sports events popular with locals such as baseball, football, mixed martial arts, racing, and golf rounded up the list.

#COVID19: Users searched for updates, symptoms, lockdowns and vaccine
‘Coronavirus Update’, ‘Coronavirus Philippines’ and ‘Covid19 symptoms’ became the top three pandemic search terms amongst users. ‘Covid 19 update worldwide’, ‘Covid 19 vaccine’, ‘Covid 19 tracker’, ‘Quarantine’, ‘Pandemic’, and ‘Lockdown’ were hot topics for the top search terms, coming in from fourth to ninth place. Interestingly, Italy was a country of interest to users in the Philippines, ‘‘Coronavirus Italy’ (10th) made an appearance as one of the popular searches related to Coronavirus.

For the biggest moments online and other surprises from the year, take a detailed look at Yahoo’s Year in Review 2020 – https://ph.yahoo.com/topics/ph-yir.  Satiate your wanderlust while looking back into 2020 with the ‘Travel in Style’ series of augmented reality (AR) filters. Three AR filters, created by Yahoo, will be available on Facebook and Instagram.

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Yahoo Mail gets a Refresh with New Look and Features

Yahoo Mail gets Refresh!

Yahoo Mail gets big improvements with refreshed design, and a fast, reliable, and intuitive opt in experience. This lets Yahoo Mail’s inbox captures their life online  whether someone uses it communicate with friends and family, as a place to keep their photos and memories, or as a way to organize coupons and receipts from purchases.

The Mail interface is cleaner and easier to use, with many updates to the layout.

Now users can personalize their inbox by choosing from new color themes. Each theme comes with three different layout options. You can also set the interface to a light or dark mode.

Now there is more spacing between important items, so the inbox feels less cluttered, and users can easily view and decipher important information.

Yahoo’s New emoji set from Twitter’s open source offering lets people can express themselves and with new stationery to make their emails more stylish.

Yahoo is also bringing several new features that make it simpler to find the information people need with Photos and Documents Views, Fast and responsive interface, Better Search (Conversation and Preview pane), Rich Preview.

The new Photos and Documents views allow people to conveniently see all the attachments they’ve ever sent or received. When someone want to look at a specific document, they can use the new side-by-side preview which allows them to view attachments and the email together.

Yahoo uses the latest web technologies to make the whole experience faster from the moment the user login. Every part of the interface is faster and more reliable, particularly for slower connections. Yahoo Mail also behaves smarter in recognizing different screen sizes, no matter how small or how big the screen. The responsive design keeps the key elements of the interface in the right place.

Now people be able to view the search results page the same way they’ve specified in their “viewing email” settings.

Hover over the image icon to view the photos, documents, etc., attached in an email for Rich Preview.

Yahoo has added even more personalization options. Users will be happy to see that Yahoo have put as much effort into making the settings area clean and easy to use, as they did the rest of the interface. So now customizing Yahoo Mail is simple. As people change settings, the interface responds instantly.

There is a improved offering of Yahoo Mail Pro, a more cost-effective ad-free subscription plan that comes with priority customer support. Available now on both desktop and mobile.

Switch back to classic desktop Mail if you are not used to the new interface or you want that classic look.

Yahoo want to ensure that all users can enjoy their upgraded email experience. They’ve incorporated full inbox access for NVDA and VoiceOver screen reader users, and provided options for light-sensitive and low-vision users, layouts for use with high magnification, and full keyboard navigation for alternative input devices.


The new desktop experience is available for global English-language. More information is available at https://upgrade.mail.yahoo.com/. To provide feedback, simply click on the Give Feedback call out in the lower left corner of the new version of Yahoo Mail.

So what you think of the New Yahoo Mail Geeks?

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Yahoo Philippines is Back... New Look and Packed with Content

Yahoo!!! is back well the Philippines portal that is...

Here comes the new Yahoo Homepage, along with Yahoo News hosted on a dedicated Philippines domain - ph.yahoo.com. Back to provide a more unified experience offering a better way to consume, engage, and discover quality content.

The new Yahoo homepage is designed keeping user behavior in mind. Yahoo has made it easier for users to get all the latest news and content, in less time. They can simply scroll through related stories inline as well as engage in conversations, share with just a tap, and "heart" their favorite articles.
Yahoo’s editors pick list some of the most important stories. Over time, as users click on more content, the Yahoo stream learns and content is tailored to user's interests.

Yahoo News provides relevant ranging from international and local politics to sports and entertainment to viral videos.

The new upgraded design provide users with a new experience with faster loading, more slideshows, videos and original content.

This major redesign of the homepage and core properties lays the foundation for many upcoming new features across platforms, harnessing the full power of Yahoo to create a unified experience across desktop and mobile web suited specially for Filipinos.

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