Did Porn Build the Internet?

Wouldn't it be interesting if you could step into the minds of 300 million humans and get a glimpse of what they were thinking? Any guesses? You're right, sex is a common theme.

One of the great aspects of working on website development is I have access to tools that provide an incredible database of about 300 million real web searches typed into the likes of Google, Yahoo and Ask over the last 90 days. It's an exact (down to the letter) photographically, computer chip precise record of humanity's searches, and, some would say, desires.

Now, we all know that "sex" is the #1 most searched for term on the internet. But let's go down the list and see what else we find in the top 1000 most frequent search terms. 

Unfortunately, many of the sex-oriented search terms are not really fit to be printed, or reprinted, so I'll take the same approach great cinematic masters do: it's what's off screen that most stimulates the imagination. Show the close up of the girl's face as she screams as the monster approaches, don't show the monster. So, in my case, I'll simply describe what the non-sex terms are people search for, and I'll give you a feeling for their meager numbers.

Out of the top 30 most frequent terms, only 11 are non-sex related. And two of these are 'youtube' and 'you tube', which I believe have no little titillating material on them. Some of the other of the 11 are top internet sites such as 'myspace', 'google', 'ebay', and 'mapquest'. Nice to see the practical side of humans, what with 'mapquest' being #18 in the list (about 90,000 searches a day). But maybe they're just trying to find sex?

What happens when people have sex? I'll give you a clue. Babies. So it's no surprise that 'baby boy names' is #24 most frequently searched for term (about 67,000 times a day).

Okay, so that's the top 30. Surely, you say, after that most of the search terms are not sex related? Ahem. Excuse me. What were you thinking? Of the next 30 terms (#31 through 60), only 6 are non sex related. And before you feel good about humanity based on those 6, realize that one of them is 'games cheat'. 

And it goes on from there. It's safe to say, that, all the way through the top 1000, the majority of the terms are sex related. However, our active internet users do find time for other timeless human passions: home improvement and travel. 'Home Depot'ranks quite highly at #66, and all the major airlines are in the top 1000. 

Lastly, perhaps the moniker "man's best friend" is not so misplaced, because 'puppies' is #657 (ahead of webcam at #658) and, 'dogs' is #128, at a solid 27,000 searches a day. Ahead of 'love' at #261, but still in the same ballpark, to my way of thinking. All people want is love and a warm cuddly puppy.