POPULAR search engine Google said that Kathniel – the former iconic love team of Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla – emerged as the top search last week.

Kathryn and Daniel both confirmed on November 30 their decision to mutually part ways after 11 years of their relationship.

The tech giant said that for Google Philippines, fans flooded the search engine, looking for any information with regards to their breakup.

“It didn’t take long for this major development to arouse the interest of fans and netizens, as they instantly took to Google Search to look up everything about Bernardo, Padilla, and the KathNiel love team,” the tech firm said. 

“Google Trends recorded the highest interest the pair has had in the last five years, with both fully dominating searches in the week of November 26,” they added.

The searches for national hero Andres Bonifacio, whose birthday was on Nov. 30, were eclipsed.

Data from Google Philippines said that more than 200,000 searches were made for Padilla on Bonifacio Day.

This eclipsed the 20,000 searches for Bonifacio.

“The KathNiel trend had also been brewing steadily over the past few weeks, as interest started climbing after talent manager Ogie Diaz teased the couple’s possible split early in November,” Google Philippines said. 

When compared to the other love teams “JaDine”, “LizQuen”, “KimXi”, and “DonBelle”, “KathNiel” emerged as the most searched on Google since 2011.

And the platforms are for both locally and globally – even on YouTube. 

“This data around “KathNiel” shows Filipinos go to Google to learn more about news, trending topics, and even entertainment. In 2022 alone, five out of 10 overall top trending Google searches in the Philippines are lifestyle- and entertainment-related,” Google Philippines said.