Maine’s Crustacean Listed As One of Google’s Most Searched 2020

We Mainers have a true connection with a special little crustacean that spends its time crawling on the ocean floor.  Harvesting lobster are an important part of the Maine economy.  So, when I see that a popular Google search in 2020 included our tasty, heavy clawed ocean friends, I had to share.

What's pretty interesting about this 'most Googled' search that our lobster friends appear in is that it's about how lobsters communicate.  Apparently, how these ocean dwellers communicate is pretty fascinating and became the most Googled 'communication-related' thing in 2020.

Not sure if it was due to pandemic fatigue or if a particular study came out that really caught the attention of people this year but people were really fascinated with how lobsters communicate.  Perhaps their communication abilities were pretty interesting because it utilizes their sense of smell instead of how we imagine how other species to communicate using visual cues or sounds.

Here's how Google explained it in their list of most popular searches in 2020:

"As we searched for new ways to communicate and stay in touch this year, many of us stumbled on a quite unusual bit of information. Lobsters, it seems, have a very interesting way of communicating. Lobsters "speak" to one another using a complex set of olfactory signals – smells – which are used instead of any noises or gestures. These scented signals are created using bladders located on either side of their head."

There it is!  One of Google's most searched things had to do with Maine's favorite crustaceans, the lobster!

See the full list of Google's popular searches of 2020, see 'Google's Year in Search 2020'.