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.