Monday, March 15, 2010

What are we searching for?


I was sitting in the computer lab wondering where to begin with this blog and my friend directed me to an interesting website called www.autocompleteme.com. After perusing the website for a few minutes (okay, so maybe a half hour or so, it is hilarious at times: "I ate all your bees" and what not) I found this image. Apparently the things google's users want to know about women are for the most part sexist, irrelevant or idiotic. I'll give the combat question and the egg question reasonable passes as they seem to be satisfying intellectual curiosities.

I find the popularity of the question "are women human?" to be the most distressing of these. It was likely meant as a joke but has become such a pervasive question that google recommends it as a logical finish to the phrase "are women". But for these questions to be so popular on google it is obvious that a lot of them are serious queries people have or at least stereotypes that people are looking for ways to actively reinforce. Besides the combat and biological question all of these seem to be grounded in prejudices towards both men and women and it is ridiculous and insulting that these are the common things we are asking about each other. I have not checked but it is reasonable to assume that "are men", "are black people," "are Asian people", "are gay/lesbian/queer people" or any other permutation of race, color, class, gender, sex, etc. would yield results that are just as offensive. So people are searching for these things either for a cheap laugh or to validate something they believe I suppose. I guess that is more important than "are women more likely to get osteoporosis?" or millions of more relevant questions. So search for some of these searches and let me see what you find. I'd like to see just how bad these questions get and see what y'all think.

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