Earlier this month Google unveiled a new tool for all those prying list-lovers. The “google trends tool allows a curious user to see which countries, cities, and languages most often search a particular keyword in proportion to their total searches. In this way, US dominance is avoided as the top searcher for all words and the tool more accurately measures particular countries’ interests. Only the top 10 results are reported.
A brief purview of keywords reveals some interesting results, as well as interesting absences.
First of all, who is interested in our very own “mother of the world ? After Giza and Cairo, Brisbane, Australia was the third largest city to search for Egypt. In the midst of other Arab countries were Slovakia and Australia, both in the top ten to search for Egypt. Albanian, oddly, is the number one language (proportionate to the rest of Albanian-language searches) to search for Egypt.
As far as our politics go, a search for Hosni Mubarak turns up mostly American and European countries but Santiago, Chile is curiously the third city in the world to search for him. Denmark, Brazil, Singapore, and Croatia have all been reading up on son Gamal though. Searching for the Muslim Brotherhood after Egypt is Israel. They shouldn’t be too worried though, as Washington DC is keeping a close eye as well, just after Cairo.
It seems more people are interested in researching Egypt’s Pharaonic past than present, though ‘mummy’ and ‘Mubarak’ were fairly close together.
On the world stage, Israel is the Middle Eastern country which generally turns up the most hits, followed by Iraq, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, UAE, Kuwait, West Bank, Palestine, Syria and Gaza, in that order.
Searching for Islam are Islamic countries, but Spanish is the number two language to search for Islam, and Malta and Iceland are among the most frequent searchers for Mecca.
At the same time though, Islamic countries are the most frequent searchers for sex. In the top ten are Pakistan, Egypt, Morocco, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia. Looking for “hot sex though and not just ordinary sex are Syria, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Bahrain, Egypt, the UAE, India, and Jordan. It could be that married couples are trying to learn about intercourse though, as no Islamic countries featured in the top 10 for porn. Of course, heavy online censorship in some Muslim countries may at least partly account for that as well. Also, to be fair, sex searches in Muslim countries drop dramatically during the beginning of Ramadan, before slowly climbing throughout the month and jumping back at the end of the month (except for impious Iran, where the difference during Ramadan was negligible).
Another way Middle Easterners are amusing themselves is through the increasing use of blogging. On the top 10 for blog or bloggers are Kuwait, Egypt, Morocco, and the UAE. Perhaps Egyptians are blogging to learn more about their emergency law, for which they search more than any other country.
Moroccans are supplementing their blog reading with science fiction, as the top country worldwide to search for the topic.
Lebanon, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco’s residents also seem to be concerned about pollution, though not as much as Trinidad and Tobago’s.
For all the concern about Arabs having access to nuclear weapons and energy, Arab and Islamic countries do not appear very prominently in the top 10 searching for nuclear weapons or bombs. Iran is only number 7 in searching for nuclear energy and is not in the top 10 to look for nuclear bombs or weapons. The US State Department would be cautioned to keep their eye on New Zealand though, the number one searcher for “nuclear bomb.
In Egypt, Alexandrians are searching for online networks Hi5, YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook more than either Gizans or Cairenes. Alexandrians share their passion for the first two networks with Latin Americans and Spanish-speakers, who are particularly avid users. Egyptians are also among the top 10 using the net to look for online dating services, Alexandrians again leading the way. The search term was virtually nonexistent though before mid-Oct 2006 when the search suddenly boomed.
Users in Zaqaziq on the other hand, don’t seem to be wasting their time with frivolity. Instead, they are the top browsers in Egypt for “Egypt and cars.
Middle Eastern culture seems to be sprouting in unexpected places. Among those countries searching for belly dancing are the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Slovenia, Australia, and New Zealand. The posh are also enjoying shisha: Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Luxemborg, though they are certainly paying more for it than we Egyptians need to. The top two languages to search for shisha are German and Polish. And oddly, residents in Portland, Oregon are the second-highest searchers for “Turkish coffee.
In the midst of researching for this article, Australia consistently turned up in somewhat odd places. The seemingly laid-back Aussies were the first to look for war, suicide, rage, aliens, hate, and how to kill, as well as dust, ballet, gymnastics, money, pyramids, pharaohs, ancient Egypt, and how to dance. Australia was also among the top three to search for police, censorship, dust, science fiction, Islamic jihad, nuclear bomb, Judaism, and Turkish coffee.
