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What people want (according to Google Suggest)

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Re: What people want (according to Google Suggest)

#31

Post by adammichaelc »

todayiamme wrote: post #26

I wonder if mining it regionally and seeing the unique searches will tell us more about a culture than years of on the ground anthropological observations. Of course, it assumes that people are kinda well off in the country and a sizable majority uses the internet. Further, this is something that networks would kill for. Most people google the news they want to read. So, they could manage their editorial content bett…

I doubt filtering is set the same for both search results. Or else there is some other lurking variable I'm not thinking of. Just doesn't seem true that Indians are anymore into porn than any other people.

Re: What people want (according to Google Suggest)

#32

Post by Ardit20 »

jakevoytko wrote: post #5

Wow. I have a new appreciation for disambiguation as a competitive advantage. I know search queries are inexact, but I didn't realize that they might be entered billions and trillions of times 130 how can i work with google 1150000000 Do they want to be employed by Google, learn about SEO, or be a supplier of Google's? 166 how can i get some money 1020000000 Do they want to earn money, win money, or receive a wire tr…

The just want to get some money!

Re: What people want (according to Google Suggest)

#33

Post by adammichaelc »

awolf wrote: post #22

>People who search in "how can i ..." type of questions are probably not a representative sample of the whole population. My guess is that they are less tech-savvy users on average. Hmm... I dunno. I search this way all the time. Mainly because I assume a lot of other people do as well and, more importantly, it works. Am I the only one?

I'll normally word a query differently until I find answers (ie I'll try "how to skin a cat," and if that gives no good result I'll try "skinning a cat," and then "how do I skin a cat" etc until I find the answer)

if that fails, if the question is related to software and/or business I will do site-specific searches at HN and lifehacker (eg site:ycombinator.com skinning a cat).

Sometimes I'll do this in reverse.

I have found that in most business settings I'm the only one who will search for things with this effort. Most people around me give up after a query or two, and then think I'm a genius when I find the information we wanted.

From mobile device, excuse typos etc

Re: What people want (according to Google Suggest)

#34

Post by todayiamme »

adammichaelc wrote: post #31
todayiamme wrote: post #26

I wonder if mining it regionally and seeing the unique searches will tell us more about a culture than years of on the ground anthropological observations. Of course, it assumes that people are kinda well off in the country and a sizable majority uses the internet. Further, this is something that networks would kill for. Most people google the news they want to read. So, they could manage their editorial content bett…

I doubt filtering is set the same for both search results. Or else there is some other lurking variable I'm not thinking of. Just doesn't seem true that Indians are anymore into porn than any other people.

It is like that statistic about prostitution in the Victorian era. Most men lost their virginity to prostitutes.

I am not saying that Indians are more into sex than other populations in the world. I am remarking on how it manifests itself. I am talking about direct observation over here. I walk down the street and there is this guy who barely knows english who is watching porn on his chinese phone in the middle of the street. And this is not a one off incident.

I might have a skewed view point but I honestly believe that cultural impact works out in some pretty fascinating ways.

Re: What people want (according to Google Suggest)

#35

Post by TomasSedovic »

raquo wrote: post #28
SandB0x wrote: post #3

I found 46 how can i find my son 55 how can i get my son back very sad.

What google is actually showing me is much more sad: http://i.imgur.com/sjGqf.png It matches what is shown to me on http://google.com/complete/search?output=toolbar&q=how%2... (note that it is NOT sorted by the number of queries) I didn't search or visit anything related to these searches, and even have bocked google analytics tracker. Yet it's all the same on all my browsers, even those which were never ever logged…

I'm getting the exact same results. Thus, I doubt it's something that's personalized for you. More like generic entries when they don't have anything better to show you.

Re: What people want (according to Google Suggest)

#36

Post by todayiamme »

paraschopra wrote: post #27
todayiamme wrote: post #26

I wonder if mining it regionally and seeing the unique searches will tell us more about a culture than years of on the ground anthropological observations. Of course, it assumes that people are kinda well off in the country and a sizable majority uses the internet. Further, this is something that networks would kill for. Most people google the news they want to read. So, they could manage their editorial content bett…

Did you make sure personalization in Google India was disabled for you? Just Joking ;) I do think your statement about porn is an extreme generalization but the differences in suggestions are very interesting.

I am sorry if it sounded like an extreme generalization. It was wrong on my part, but you're from India and you know how this society is setup. It is just interesting that it spills over like this.

P.S. - I might be the only person I know who doesn't like porn. I know it's weird, but I just find it to be undignified in a lot of ways. Oh and I didn't take the screen shots I found it online a while ago.

Re: What people want (according to Google Suggest)

#37

Post by caryme »

Google says they "apply a narrow set of removal policies for pornography, violence, and hate speech."

What seems incongruous with this to me is that they also filter many (non-explicit) gay-related searches.

For example, typing "is my son" yields:

is my son autistic? is my son smoking pot? is my son ready for kindergarten? is my son gifted?

Doing a google trends search for these four phrases along with "is my son gay?" shows that the gay query is dramatically more popular: http://bit.ly/aPNHxO

It seems like in some of those cases, knowing that others are searching the same thing could provide some comfort. I'm not sure why Google filters these queries.

Re: What people want (according to Google Suggest)

#38

Post by jcl »

IgorPartola wrote: post #4
SandB0x wrote: post #3

I found 46 how can i find my son 55 how can i get my son back very sad.

I wonder if at least some of the time #55 refers more to getting him back mentally, as in back to the state before puberty hit. #46 is indeed very sad.

I suppose 46 could also be someone looking for (e.g.) a cell-phone tracking service for parents.

Re: What people want (according to Google Suggest)

#39

Post by DotSauce »

These terms are ranked by # of results, not search frequency! Nothing can be gleamed except the total popularity of the individual words and phrases as they are published on the web.

http://www.google.com/search?q=how+can+i+be+on+made About 25,280,000,000 results

http://www.google.com/search?q=how+can+i+make+a+site About 2,210,000,000 results

Both match up with the suggest data.

The words at the top of the list are generic: (will, free, help, made, etc.)

As you go down the list, the words become less generic: (dream, market, people, speed, password, etc.)

You would be better off looking at Google AdWords data or http://google.com/trends

Re: What people want (according to Google Suggest)

#40

Post by jonknee »

caryme wrote: post #37

Google says they "apply a narrow set of removal policies for pornography, violence, and hate speech." What seems incongruous with this to me is that they also filter many (non-explicit) gay-related searches. For example, typing "is my son" yields: is my son autistic? is my son smoking pot? is my son ready for kindergarten? is my son gifted? Doing a google trends search for these four phrases along with "is my son gay…

I think they filter results that aren't themselves hate speech but that have hate speech pointing at them or contained within the SERP. I could see anti-gay sites that are considered hate speech having content about "Is my son gay" and that contaminating the suggestion results.
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