The World Searches, we Listen

Lately I've developed a habit of posting oddities I come across when looking at search behavior on Facebook. The most recent was yesterday when I was doing some research around general searches for clothing, I found that in America, one of the largest subsets of clothing searches is actually plus-size type things. The logical thought behind that (at least the way my mind works) is that fat people probably aren't the types to go to the store and try things on for a variety of reasons concerning self-esteem so they tend to do shopping online. In other words, fat people don't necessarily buy more or less clothes than slender people, they are just more likely to browse and search for their clothes on Google than they are wandering around a mall.

I've always been a hoarder of random information. As such, I especially enjoy the oddball search behaviors that have larger behavioral implications. Someday I should write a book about all the little observations I've made across all the industries I've done search behavior research on. But until then, a blog post will have to do. Off the top of my head (I'm on my couch and not on my work computer so I don't have any deliverables in front of me) the following are some random things I have noted over the years that I found interesting. In no particular order:

-Contrary to what you'd assume (given the attention devoted to marketing clothes to women), there are 3x as many searches for mens fashion as there are for womens fashion

-Based on how people search for such things, it appears the general population considers whatever is said about Aspartame or Truvia to also be true for High Fructose Corn Syrup (and vice versa)

-Outside of New York, if you're a gay single male looking for other gay single males, the next largest city of single gay males out looking is Atlanta if search volume is any indicator. San Francisco is barely in the top 5.

-People are more likely to use brand names in their search strings when looking for sunglasses than they are when looking for cars

-If you're a restaurant of any prominence, the most common thing people will want from your restaurant online is coupons, followed by the menu (odd that we live in times where people are less interested in WHAT they eat and more interested in saving money). Usually, nutrition facts are way down the list.

-More people go to Google to find a dentist in Salt Lake City than anywhere else in the country

-There are nearly twice as many searches for wedding dresses online as there are engagement rings

-We Americans look for chicken recipes specifically more than any other particular kind of recipe

-Based on volume, more people are interested in making wine at home than they are making beer

-There's more people looking for horses for sale than kittens for sale on Google (perhaps because horse traders buy in bulk?)

-There's more than 15 times as many people looking for abortion clinics in a month than there are people looking for adoption services