From learning how to kiss to how to lose weight, Google’s most searched questions give us an insight into humanity’s daily trials and tribulations.
Top searches also include queries about how to do the most mundane things such as make pancakes, tie a tie and make money.
Results showed North Americans and East Asians needed most help fixing their toilets while people in former Soviet countries were more likely to be googling how to fix their washing machines.
The most googled ‘how to’ question was how to tie a tie followed by how to kiss. There were also lots of ‘coming-of-age question’ such as how to tell if a girl likes you, how to get a girl to like you and how to ask a girl out (stock image)
According to researchers at Google’s News Lab, ‘how to’ searchers have increased by more than 140 per cent since 2004.
They note that most of that interest is in how to ‘fix’ things – often mundane household items such as fridges and toilets.
Included in the top ten ‘how to’ questions are how to make money, how to make pancakes, how to write a cover letter and how to lose belly flat.
The most googled ‘how to’ question was how to tie a tie followed by how to kiss.
Working with data journalist Xaquín González Veira, researchers created a visual essay about things people around the world need help fixing.
‘We looked at what things we need the most help with around the house, from the simplest how-to-fit-a-bulb kind of fixes, to those fixes for which we know we need a professional, but our ego makes us take upon ourselves to at least try’, Mr Veira said.
Researchers found questions about walls, doors and windows were the most searched items in almost every country.
Top searches included tips about how to do the most mundane things such as make pancakes, tie a tie (pictured, stock image) and lose weight
The third most googled question was ‘how to get pregnant’. The data visualization is the latest by Google News Labs to re-examine how news designers can tell stories using new types of data (stock image)
North Americans and East Asians needed most help fixing their toilets while people in former Soviet countries were more likely to be googling how to fix their washing machines
‘North Americans and East Asians need their toilets, people in former Soviet countries are fearless enough to attempt fixing their own washing machines, warmer climates can’t live without a fridge’, he said.
‘We have become so dependent on offloading, on relieving our brains from keeping certain basic, human information in storage, that we’ve forgotten how to do some fairly basic grown up tasks.’
In the top 100 ‘how to’ questions worldwide, people had asked how to boil an egg, cook rise, poach and egg and make a cake.
There were also lots of ‘coming-of-age question’ such as how to tell if a girl likes you, how to get a girl to like you and how to ask a girl out.
Some of the questions were more practical such as how to tune a guitar and jump a car.
Included in the top ten ‘how to’ questions are how to make money, how to make pancakes, how to write a cover letter and how to lose belly flat (stock image)
How to make money was one of the most googled questions. Researchers note there were many questions about how to ‘fix’ household items such as fridges and toilets (stock image)
‘Some of those questions are recurring themes of our search behaviour, here are some of the most interesting seasonal ‘how to’ questions’, researchers found.
For example questions about ‘how to ask someone to the prom’ peaks around March and ‘how to lose weight’ peaks in January and then slumps for the rest of the year.
The data visualization is the latest by Google News Labs to re-examine how news designers can tell stories using new types of data.
According to researchers at Google’s News Lab, ‘how to’ searchers have increased by more than 140 per cent since 2004 – with more and more people wanting to know ‘how to draw’ (stock image)
The most googled ‘how to’ question was how to tie a tie followed by how to kiss. Some of the questions were more practical such as how to tune a guitar and jump a car
‘Some of those questions are recurring themes of our search behaviour, here are some of the most interesting seasonal ‘how to’ questions’, researchers found.
For example questions about ‘how to ask someone to the prom’ peaks around March and ‘how to lose weight’ peaks in January and then slumps for the rest of the year.
The data visualisation is the latest by Google News Labs to re-examine how news designers can tell stories using new types of data.
