Why Disney's 'Tangled' is the top coronavirus Google search in the U.S.
Americans clearly have "corona" on their minds.
The top trending coronavirus-related search on Google's U.S. site in the past day is none other than an inquiry about the 2010 animated Disney movie Tangled.
The movie is about Rapunzel — you know, the girl with the long hair trapped in a tower — so, at first, it might seem like we're all commiserating with the Mandy Moore-voiced heroine's cabin fever. That would be a reasonable assumption. But that's not why it's trending. Apparently, it's related to a certain c-word we've been hearing often these days.
The top question is:
"What was the name of the kingdom in 'Tangled'?"
The answer: "Corona," the fictitious land where Rapunzel is confined in the Disney movie that unfortunately shares its name with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, a respiratory illness.
Corona means "crown," and is part of the virus' name because of the crown-like shape of the spikes surrounding the virus.
Clearly, for this to trend, people must be very bored while under quarantine or sheltering-at-home to combat the spread of the infectious disease.
The other top coronavirus-related questions are more expected during a global flu pandemic, like searches about the number of current cases and telltale symptoms.
More generally, the top U.S. searches Monday are about different states imposing stay-at-home orders because of the virus. Refreshingly, one top search term is something completely unrelated to the pandemic: National Puppy Day.
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
