In 2004, The Economist rated Ireland as the country with the highest quality of life in the world. However, the residents here are also among those who frequently search for information about loneliness on the planet. Many interesting “secrets” from other countries are also being revealed by Google Trends.
Google Trends, which compiles the total number of people searching for specific information through its search program, shows that the keyword “lonely” is the most searched term by Internet users in Ireland. Singaporeans, while ranking second, are also among the global leaders in the search for happiness.
The interests, preferences, and concerns of each country are being explored and compared thanks to Google Trends, which ranks keywords by city, territory, and language. For instance, Google asserts that Pakistanis are more enthusiastic about searching for “Danish cartoons” than anywhere else. They also lead in search volume for “sex,” far surpassing their neighbor India.
“In Pakistan, sex is a taboo subject. Curiosity and the prevalence of the Internet may explain these searching behaviors,” explained Fatima Idrees, a project director at Gallup International.
Although Google claims to ensure user privacy, it overlooks the privacy of each nation. Thus, anyone can discover that the British enjoy searching for “handcuffs,” while Russians search for information about U.S. President George W. Bush seven times more than they do about their own President Vladimir Putin. Even though “homosexuality” can be punishable by death in Saudi Arabia, the kingdom ranks as the runner-up in the number of searches for “gay sex,” only behind the Philippines.
The keyword “guns” is often associated with the United States. However, it seems that criminals in Latin America are starting to go online to search for methods of kidnapping and assassination… Argentina and Peru have even surpassed the U.S. in this regard, while Chile, Colombia, and Mexico also rank in the top ten countries searching for “guns.”
“Google Trends is an impressive project because it provides a comprehensive and insightful view of the habits, interests, and cultures of each country,” commented Jonathan Zittrain, an Internet culture expert at Oxford University.
The new product lineup from Google introduced last week, in addition to Google Trends, includes Google Desktop 4, Google Notebook, and Google Co-op.
Hai Nguyen
