[TheHeadMaster]

Google knows that you and your colleague met, drove together etc from location of both your devices. So, "maybe" your colleague frequently searched about cricket on his device. Based on these data points, google might have shown you cricket suggestions.

[biophetik]

Pretty much sums up my thoughts exactly. There was a good reply all episode about this very thing. https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/109-facebook-spying

[partisan]

I don’t know, but this sounds as bad to me as if they are actually listening. There are plenty of things I search for that I wouldn’t want to exposed to my friends or colleagues via this approach. I can think of ways to mitigate the violation of privacy, but that is what this is, if it exists.

[lillesvin]

That's actually a really good and plausible explanation. Hadn't thought of that. My colleague is an Apple guy but I guess Google could still easily and legitimately know his location if he has Google Maps or other Google software installed.

But then I wonder why the 3rd guy in the car didn't get any similar suggestions.