Home Mobile Archives Reader Blogs Register Login

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Search Trends

Hmm...

Google lifted the veil this week on one of its best-kept secrets: which nations search for what.

Who looks up democracy most avidly? Who seeks out Allah or Christ most faithfully? Who types in “drugs” or “sex” most frequently?

No country’s secrets are spared.

Pakistanis look up “Danish cartoons” more avidly than anyone, according to Google. They also lead the rankings for “sex” - with their neighbor and nuclear rival India seldom far behind.

Even though homosexuality is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia, the kingdom ranks No. 2 for searches for “gay sex,” behind the Philippines.
President George W. Bush commands at least seven times as many searches in Russia as its own leader, Vladimir Putin. Among the French, Bush generates about 50 percent more look-ups than Chirac; among Iranians, Bush is searched twice as often as the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.


Interesting stuff, especially the searches taking place in some of the world's more culturally oppressed regions.

Comments

Avatar for Puzzlefeet

A friend once told me that we didn’t have to invade the middle east to make changes, all we had to do was drop a bunch of porn and dvd players and the government would be overthrown on its own and so much cheaper without bloodshed.  Hm… wonder if we should try it in Iran.

Puzzlefeet on May 16, 2006 at 10:21 am
Avatar for robert108

This isn’t an antiwar thread.

robert108 on May 16, 2006 at 10:34 am
Rob
Rob
17396 comments
Send a private message

I see Puzzle’s point, though.  I recently did a post called “Is Porn Good For Islam?”

I’m not sure that porn, specifically, would be a good thing to drop on these people...but certainly the more exposure they get to western culture the more they’re going to want the western-style freedoms that are at the heart of it.


When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

robport.gif border=0

Rob on May 16, 2006 at 10:49 am
Avatar for Bat One

This article, and Puzzle’s glib comment, are both worth remembering the next time some Congressional Pooh-Bah, of either party, decides on our behalf that the internet needs regulating… and taxing too.

Bat One on May 16, 2006 at 10:50 am
Avatar for Puzzlefeet

R108, lighten up, it wasn’t meant to be antiwar, it was meant to show that porn could destabilize a muslim country since they are accessing the web for porn.  You are so quick to attack.  If you don’t like what I write, ignore it. And besides I;ll be waiting for the same comment from you to Bat One Bat One for bringing up taxing the internet.  I guess I’ll wait until hell freezes over for that from you.

Puzzlefeet on May 16, 2006 at 11:03 am
Avatar for Gene Redlin

I’m going to go all biblical on you.  Ja’ver notice when someone is really deep in some sin or another and feeling guilty how judgemental they all get?  I remember when Jimmy Swaggart was seeing whores for nude dances how he railed against porn and immoratlity and such just before he was caught.

So, when we see the muslims waving signs about the great satan, what ARE they doing at home in the dark that makes them feel so guilty they rail against it all the way they do?

King David was going to beat the heck out of a guy for stealing a sheep till he learned from the prophet it was all about him.  David had slept with Bathsheba, knocked her up and killed her husband to hide the evidence.  Indignity sometimes reveals guilt.

So WHY DO the muslims riot so readily.  Could XXX websites have ANYTHING to do with that?

Just asking.

Gene Redlin on May 16, 2006 at 11:09 am
Avatar for The Whistler

Actually I had heard that contrary to what you hear in the press that homosexuality was a “problem” in muslim countries.  I did find an interesting link about why Islamic societies are dysfunctional.

The Whistler on May 16, 2006 at 11:26 am
Avatar for Bat One

Gene,

I don’t believe its guilt… nor is it porn.  Rather, I think that like their western liberal brethren, the Islamists are trapped in an outdated, dysfunctional ideology, and the frustration we see manifested by both groups is borne of envy.

In both instances, history has passed them by, abandoning them for more verdant intellectual pastures and a more productive, freer social order.

Both traditional Islamism and traditional liberalism are basically autocracies.  And though they each worship at the feet of different gods, the result is still the same:  oppression.

Meanwhile, for all our problems, the most pressing today appears to be that there are far, far more people who would rather be here than anywhere else, and will do almost anything to get here.  Nowhere else on this planet is vexed with such a dilemna… despite the incessant carping of those on the left.  Helluva problem, isn’t it?

Bat One on May 16, 2006 at 12:19 pm
Avatar for diane

So, when we see the muslims waving signs about the great satan, what ARE they doing at home in the dark that makes them feel so guilty they rail against it all the way they do?

**********

My husband told me that someone he knows who works in the hotel industry says that whenever they have a convention of preachers/religious leaders, the demand for porn goes way up.

Not Muslim religious leaders, mind you.

As for the signs, I’ve seen them being held in other religious hands than Muslims.

When Muslims kill between 30K and 100K people in America, as we are responsible for in Iraq, I will worry about Islam being an violent religion.

In Iraq, some of those guys with the guys on ‘our side’ have their church services and then go out and take innocent lives.

Judge not....

Your cause may NOT be the righteous one in God’s eyes.  But you will find out if it was, that’s for sure, if (or if you don’t) believe in an afterlife.

diane on May 16, 2006 at 10:18 pm
Avatar for robert108

"Judge not....” You might want to take your own advice there.  You seem to do a lot of self-righteous judging on this blog.

robert108 on May 16, 2006 at 11:07 pm
Avatar for likwidshoe

diane said, When Muslims kill between 30K and 100K people in America, as we are responsible for in Iraq, I will worry about Islam being an violent religion.

Not until then?

What a ridiculous way to look at the matter.

likwidshoe on May 17, 2006 at 03:23 am
Avatar for Gene Redlin

My husband told me that someone he knows who works in the hotel industry says that whenever they have a convention of preachers/religious leaders, the demand for porn goes way up.

My brother who has a friend who knows someone in the Hotel business who says this isn’t true.

Isn’t second hand information wonderful?

Gene Redlin on May 17, 2006 at 05:19 am
Avatar for robert108

P:  Lighten up!  It was just a reminder about staying on-topic.  Some commenters seem to have a need to turn every thread to their favorite topic, and you seem to be one of those.  Consider it a gentle reminder rather than an attack.
As far as “dropping” porn on Islam, wasn’t the Google report about requests?  It seems as if they are choosing to look at that stuff; we are not forcing it on them.  You might want to reconsider your anti-American bias here.  Remember, demand creates supply, not the other way around.  Econ 101.

robert108 on May 17, 2006 at 06:34 am
Page 1 of 1        

Post a Comment


Before commenting, please recite:

Grant me the serenity to ignore the trolls,
the courage to debate with honest opponents,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

Name   
Email   
URL   
Human?
  
 

Upload Image    

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Note: Notifications will only be sent to confirmed email addresses.