Search engines have essentially become guides for living life for many people all over the world. They might help find a Web site, or an image, or shed some light on "how to" do just about anything imaginable. Two people at Hitwise decided to take a closer look at these interesting queries.
General manager of global research at Hitwise, Bill Tancer, revealed a list of the top "how to" queries in the U.S. for the four weeks ending July 21, 2007. Over 130,000 unique "how to" queries were accumulated to formulate the list. The top search was "How to tie a tie," which has held this top spot steadily for the past two years. The second most popular search was "How to have sex," followed by "How to kiss."
"How to lose weight," "How to write a resume," "How to levitate," "How to draw," "How to get pregnant," "How to make out," and "How to make a video" were the other popular "how to" searches to make the top 10 list.
"How to" queries have increased 17.5% since the beginning of 2007, and make up 2.96% of all searches in the U.S.
Tancer notes in his article for Time.com that there were a number of queries related to foolish and even illegal activities (weed and bombs, anyone?) that showed just how willing and comfortable Web users are to search for anything and everything on their minds. Privacy concerns are no such thing to these users, it seems.
Heather Hopkins, VP Research for Hitwise UK, unveiled a similar list of "how to" queries for search engine users in the U.K. Her list compiled 33,270 unique queries during the four weeks ending August 4, 2007.
"How to write a cv" topped the list, followed by "How to have sex," and simply "How to."
"How to get a six pack," "How to kiss," "How to make money," "How to draw," "How to lose weight," "How to save a life lyrics," and "How to get to" rounded out the top 10 list for the U.K.
It seems that although American and British users have very similar interests, American searchers are a bit more concerned about topics related to physical activities and intimacy, and British searchers either don’t wear ties or are experts at tying them.
Sources:
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1647434,00.html
http://weblogs.hitwise.com/heather-hopkins/2007/08/how_to_
write_a_cv_and_other_bu.html
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