However, the story was picked up by the media all over the world because it provided them with an entertaining opportunity to bash Pakistan, since these days it is very easy and popular to do so. The story was exaggerated and played completely out of context. From Pakistanis there were two usual reactions one stating that this is obviously a conspiracy and the other from our elitist friends who believe everything nasty about Pakistan must be true (that is why most of them try not to live there).
I felt the need to spend a little more time understanding if Pakistanis were actually that bad and decided to run a brief current report on some of the commonly known porn searches using the same source as Fox did. Here is what I found:
(Source: http://google.com/trends I take no responsibility for the accuracy of the table above neither does Google!! See below.)
This information could be very relevant to you if you are a Cat or a Chicken because you would certainly want to avoid travelling to certain countries and cities. Using this you can also figure out how popular you could be in the Czech Republic or Algeria and how to make friends in Egypt. Fascinating isn’t it?
Obviously the US porn industry is the largest in the world and most significant chunk of their revenues come from the internet, so if everything in the Fox story were to be believed then technically Pakistanis are playing their role in stimulating global and US economy. So they are fighting Terrorism AND stimulating the Economy? BRILLIANT.
One more interesting factor that appeared in this random study was Richardson, Texas. Who would have thought a city with only 101,400 people (Est. 2007) could top 4 categories? According to Wikipedia (the most reliable source of information on the web after Twitter) there are over 5000 businesses in Richardson including 5 of the world’s largest Communication/Networking companies. I wonder why so many geeks were caught by Dateline NBC: To Catch a Predator? I have no idea!!
It is also important to understand how Google Trends work and how reliable are these statistics. Here is what I found on their website:
How does Google Trends work?
Google Trends analyzes a portion of Google web searches to compute how many searches have been done for the terms you enter, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. We then show you a graph with the results – our Search Volume Index graph.
How accurate and up-to-date is the information provided by Google Trends?
The data Trends produces may contain inaccuracies for a number of reasons, including data-sampling issues and a variety of approximations that are used to compute results. We hope you find this service interesting and entertaining, but you probably wouldn’t want to write your Ph.D. dissertation based on the information provided by Trends.
Hmm so Google HOPES that we would find this SERVICE INTERESTING AND ENTERTAINING!! I sure did.
While until mid of this week Fox was promoting Tea Party ideology which believes that the unemployed were too lazy to work and hence unemployment benefits must not be extended, they didn’t realize what they could learn about unemployment from Google Trends:
Top 10 cities of the world searching ‘Unemployment’ are all US cities!!
Obviously this will not have an impact on Fox they will continue to work with the Tea Party. They fail to understand basic Economic Concepts and are unsure how the unemployment checks could help stimulate and sustain economic growth. Hmm… Bias for ‘Lack of Intellect’??
For those who thought Pakistanis were only searching for porn, well you are wrong again, see below:
We understand that in accordance with estimates only 10.4% of Pakistanis have access to the internet (Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/asia/pk.htm), so by no means this is a representative sample of Pakistanis but this can indicate in a limited manner what is bothering Pakistanis the most and what possible solutions they might think of.
While US is an exciting country for people everywhere the following must also be looked at:
While Fox and the people who picked up the story around the world chose to use Google Trends to mislead and misinform, if someone decides to study these statistics with some level of positivity it might help them understand some very relevant issues, here are some additional results:
Isn't anyone interested in knowing why UAE tops the search for Camel Children?
With the analysis above I do not intend to defend my people or justify or criticize anyone else’s behavior, I am just adding some relevant facts to the argument.
Those who think hatemongering is acceptable in the name of Freedom of Speech should also explain why shouldn’t a person have Freedom to access whatever legal content he/she chooses to on the internet?
Although Google miserably failed to sell their smart phone this highlights the power Google has over the world with its virtually unlimited access to personal information.
In the end, while it wasn’t my intention to use so many popular search items in one blog but I have, and this might increase traffic on the page exponentially, too bad. I felt the need to have a more detailed discussion about this issue since some were being too judgmental and others were being too apologetic and I don’t think we need to be either, we should just put the issue in perspective and be aware.
