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AbbeFaria
Joined: 17 May 2005
Location: Gangnam
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 Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 9:43 pm Post subject: Google Trends |
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Cool new waste of time:
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Elmhurst, Ill., Loves Gay Porn
Which U.S. city seeks the most sex? Who wants to impeach Bush the most? Ask Google Trends
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, May 19, 2006
The Keebler cookie factory used to be nearby. That could explain it. Or maybe it's the small liberal arts college that inspires so many dirty thoughts, though I'm more given to thinking it's because of Immaculate Conception High School and Timothy Christian High School. After all, repression and guilt-addled masturbatory fantasies make for the most basic of urges, you know?
Because the fact is, for all of last year, Elmhurst, Ill., population about 43,000, home of the Sunshine Biscuit Co. and former home of the largest Chevy dealer in the United States and pretty much quaint upscale yuppie Anytown, U.S.A., was the American city that looked up the term "sex" most frequently on Google.
Isn't that cute? Isn't that interesting? Sort of? I know this because Google just unveiled this nifty and somewhat baffling tool called Google Trends, wherein you simply enter your search term and choose a couple of parameters and hit Return and boom, you can see which regions (or countries or cities) in the world are looking up that term most actively for a given year (the data also shifts day to day), using Google's massive search database, and it's random, semipractical stuff like this that makes it difficult to hate Google for whoring out to China and for becoming the new Microsoft and for their billionaire geek teenager CEOs. But that's another column.
Google Trends. It is utterly fascinating, at least for a while. It is cool and useful and at the same time enormously frustrating due to its obvious limitations, though I imagine it will spawn enormous amounts of titillating filler for countless PR firms and marketers and research papers and news reports that cite all sorts of vague data that seems to tell you something really important but when you stop and think about it doesn't really tell you all that much at all. You know, just like religion.
Elmhurst, Illinois, is apparently way into sex. Or at least the idea of sex (googling that hugely broad term returns a decidedly unsexy array of sites, including those for "Sex and the City," the Sex Pistols, Playboy.com, the National Sex Offender Registry and Sex Addicts Anonymous -- not exactly a steaming cup o' hot titillation).
But that's not all. Elmhurst has darker, juicier secrets. Turns out Elmhurst is also, at least for 2006, the town most actively looking up "anal sex" (followed closely by Norfolk, Va., and, of course, San Antonio, Texas). And also "porn." And also "gay porn" (just ahead of Las Vegas). And also "vibrator." Do you sense a trend? I sense a trend. And also someplace I might need to get a summer home.
What does this say about Elmhurst? What does this say about small towns across the United States? What do you think it says? Because that's pretty much what it says.
Google, thoughtfully, also includes any relevant news articles it can dig up to go alongside your search results to perhaps explain some of the interest. Does this help explain why Rockville, Md., looks up "Vishnu" more than any other city? Verily, I have no idea.
But still, it can get interesting. Who's looking up "impeach Bush" most actively? Portland, Oregon. (San Francisco is third). "American Idol"? Honolulu, Hawaii -- by a strangely huge margin. "Gas prices"? Minneapolis. "Dildo"? That would be Oslo, Norway. "Dildo," among U.S. cities? Tampa, Fla. "Tom Cruise"? Cambridge, Mass. "Tom Cruise gay"? Irvine and New York. "Da Vinci Code"? Salt Lake City. "Gun control"? Cincinnati. And "Viagra," for 2006? That's Fort Worth, Texas. Go figure.
In fact, Google Trends is pretty much the biggest "go figure" tool you're likely to see all year. You can speculate to your heart's content about why the hell Phoenix would be looking up "Jenna Jameson" more than Las Vegas, or why Nashville is so heavily into Christ, or why they really love Ashlee Simpson in Newark, N.J., or why Philadelphia, for some unknowable reason, loves the fact that Britney Spears is pregnant whereas Santiago, Chile, really, really loves Pearl Jam, but you could only guess. One bit of historical news: Jesus has resurged and is once again more popular than the Beatles. Just FYI.
On the other hand, it's pretty clear why India, Pakistan and the Philippines are incredibly high on the basic sciences, including nukes (the U.S. doesn't even make the top 10). Or why "God" outpaces the "devil" by a margin of about 2-to-1 -- except in Tampa, where the devil is, curiously, gaining quite a lot of ground. (Update: Astute readers now remind me of the obvious. It's because of the Devil Rays. Duh).
It's gets curiouser. You can do side-by-side comparisons by typing in a string of words separated by a comma, and compare, say, Eva Longoria and Angelina Jolie and Jessica Alba and Lindsay Lohan, and find out that Angelina is huge in Turkey, Argentina and Portugal whereas Mexico City really, really loves itself some Lindsay, but that Jessica has made serious gains and is now racing to the top of almost all charts everywhere. Why would you do this? I have no idea. But you can. Which is, of course, much of the defining appeal of the Internet itself.
Google even provides a few quirky-but-obvious examples of its own to get you started, such as posing "gyms" and "new years resolutions" side by side so you can see the exact same spike in interest in both right at the turn of the year. You already knew it's true, but it's mildly cool to see it in a graph, like you're peeking into odd human behaviors. Which is the entire appeal of Google Trends right there: It's just a tiny bit voyeuristic. And if there's one thing we love, it's glimpsing at just how weird everyone else is.
People apparently look up "dog" twice as much as "cat." "Black" and "white" are pretty much neck and neck, except in Chicago. Pleasanton and Salt Lake City are tied for "orgasm," which tells you, well, almost nothing, except that maybe these towns have the wrong slogans.
But here's the good news. Trends are still skewing positive. We are still full of hope and aspiration and hot, sticky desire. Because despite all efforts by fundamentalist right-wingers and BushCo's flying monkeys to maul the face of honesty and joy and integrity forever, "truth" still kicks "lie" to the curb by a ratio of 2-to-1. Light still easily beats dark, sun beats rain, sex is by far our most active sport, and love has it over hate by a factor of about 20. Now that's reassuring. |
Article here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2006/05/19/notes051906.DTL
Google Trends here: http://google.com/trends
I looked up my home city of St. Louis and turns out Germany makes it into the list of cities/regions doing some asking. Wonder if it's because of the beer thing. Maybe the biggest Google waste of time since GoogleFight? You be the judge. |
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hermes.trismegistus
Joined: 08 Sep 2005
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| Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 10:03 pm Post subject: |
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I've been playing with GT for a few weeks now. I've found it absolutely fascinating. I especially like how they'll contrast news releases with popularity.
I've found some intriguing results from a few esoteric searches...
Nifty function, IMO.
Namaste. |
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AbbeFaria
Joined: 17 May 2005
Location: Gangnam
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| Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 10:10 pm Post subject: |
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I know about the Jenna Jameson one and why Pheonix would be searching. When she's not off globetrotting and filming her artistic masterpieces, she spends a lot of time in the Pheonix metro area. Namely Scottsdale. She even owns a nightclub out there and is reputed to be a huge...female dog of the bad tempered variety.
�S� |
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Milwaukiedave
Joined: 02 Oct 2004
Location: Goseong
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| Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 8:34 am Post subject: |
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Yeah that is pretty fascinating. I entered the term "mad cow" and got this as a result:
1. Winnipeg Canada
2. Edmonton Canada
3. Calgary Canada
4. Orlando United States
5. Washington United States
6. Portland United States (my hometown)
7. Seattle United States
8. San Francisco United States
9. Austin United States
10. Ottawa Canada
Apparently someone is pretty concerned about mad cow in Canada... |
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Milwaukiedave
Joined: 02 Oct 2004
Location: Goseong
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| Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 8:38 am Post subject: |
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OMG
Yeah this is a riot..I'm having TOO much fun.
I entered the word "masterbation" and I bet no one can guess the number one city that came up in the search....
Salt Lake City Utah
(go figure) |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 9:09 am Post subject: |
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"Nude Beaches"
1. New Delhi India
2. Chennai India
3. Delhi India
4. Mumbai India
5. Tampa United States
6. Orlando United States
7. San Francisco United States
8. St Louis United States
9. Atlanta United States
10. Seattle United States |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 9:12 am Post subject: |
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"Crystal Meth"
1. Victoria Canada
2. Winnipeg Canada
3. Edmonton Canada
4. Honolulu United States
5. Vancouver Canada
6. Calgary Canada
7. Irvine United States
8. Los Angeles United States
9. San Diego United States
10. Toronto Canada |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 9:13 am Post subject: |
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"esl cafe"
1. Seoul Korea
2. Vancouver Canada
3. Winnipeg Canada
4. Halifax Canada
5. Ottawa Canada
6. Calgary Canada
7. Edmonton Canada
8. Bangkok Thailand
9. Toronto Canada
10. Auckland New Zealand |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 9:22 am Post subject: |
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"Teaching Korea"
1. Seoul Korea
2. Halifax Canada
3. Auckland New Zealand
4. Vancouver Canada
5. Ottawa Canada
6. Dublin Ireland
7. Toronto Canada
8. Sydney Australia
9. Melbourne Australia
10. Montreal Canada |
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Maserial
Joined: 31 Jul 2005
Location: The Web
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| Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 9:24 am Post subject: |
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'Ethanol'
1. Minneapolis United States
2. Brisbane Australia
3. Washington United States
4. Sydney Australia
5. Denver United States
6. Ottawa Canada
7. Houston United States
8. Boston United States
9. Chicago United States
10. Melbourne Australia |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 9:33 am Post subject: |
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"traveling" - one l
1. Minneapolis United States
2. Denver United States
3. Boston United States
4. Chicago United States
5. San Diego United States
6. Seattle United States
7. San Francisco United States
8. Portland United States
9. St Louis United States
10. Philadelphia United States
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"travelling" - two l's
1. Dublin Ireland
2. Brisbane Australia
3. Sydney Australia
4. Adelaide Australia
5. London United Kingdom
6. Melbourne Australia
7. Perth Australia
8. Edinburgh United Kingdom
9. Auckland New Zealand
10. Bletchley United Kingdom |
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desultude
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Location: Dangling my toes in the Persian Gulf
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| Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 10:17 am Post subject: |
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Interesting- only one city in Korea and 5 in the US for:
Kimchi:
1. Seoul Korea
2. Makati Philippines
3. Vancouver Canada
4. Singapore Singapore
5. Pleasanton United States
6. Irvine United States
7. New York United States
8. Hong Kong Hong Kong
9. Los Angeles United States
10. Seattle United States |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 10:20 am Post subject: |
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spell it with a 'ee' instead.. and totally different once again.. but much more U.S.-centric.
'kimchee'
1. Honolulu United States
2. Seattle United States
3. Boston United States
4. San Francisco United States
5. New York United States
6. Washington United States
7. Los Angeles United States
8. Chicago United States
9. Atlanta United States
10. Toronto Canada |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 10:36 am Post subject: |
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It's the UK and the US! With all the attention on their special relationship they've forgotten how to spell!
DEFINATELY:
1. Manchester United Kingdom
2. Austin United States
3. Brentford United Kingdom
4. Birmingham United Kingdom
5. San Diego United States
6. Seattle United States
7. San Francisco United States
8. London United Kingdom
9. Los Angeles United States
10. Dallas United States |
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AbbeFaria
Joined: 17 May 2005
Location: Gangnam
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| Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 11:02 am Post subject: |
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Breast Enlargement:
Top cities (normalized)
1. Chennai India
2. Delhi India
3. Mumbai India
4. Sheffield United Kingdom
5. Salt Lake City United States
6. Manchester United Kingdom
7. Brisbane Australia
8. Brentford United Kingdom
9. Birmingham United Kingdom
10. Perth Australia
Again Salt Lake City comes up near the top. They are some repressed sonsabitchz in that town. And Mormons are supposed to be so pius. Kinda makes you feel good, don't it. Does me, anyway.
You have to wonder if city leaders will see this and try to pass harsher restrictions, feeling they people are getting too corrupt or something. It wouldn't surprise me.
This might be fun: Lets see how many sexual type things we can find that Salt Lake City makes it in to the top ten. Obviously things that get past the board censors, but I'm curious. Anyone in?
�S� |
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