Cole S.H. sent in “…a set of screenshots of Google’s autocomplete feature, which is based on number of searches of a given phrase,” with comments in red written in by the creator (originally found on reddit, link to original here):
It provides some interesting insights into popular conceptions of men, women, and relationships.
Some of the search terms related to men/husbands/boyfriends: attracted to breasts, jerks, afraid of commitment, abusive, mean, selfish, grumpy. Search terms related to women/wives/girlfriends: emotional, difficult, complicated, attracted to bad boys, crazy, always mad, better than men.
Apparently both men and women are considered mean and stupid, so there is some equality. I do think it’s interesting that one of the popular search terms about women is why they are “better than men”; it’s weird to me that there’s a whole genre of jokes about women being smarter/better than men, and that I know people who tell them or find them funny who would be offended at a similar joke about men being smarter than women.
Reader SB has some similar images at The Sexual Buzz.
Also check out our post on Amazon’s gendered gift-giving suggestions.
NOTE: There’s been some confusion about what I meant about this giving “insights” about gender conceptions–I’m not saying most people think negative things about the other sex, or that this is scientific data. I just think it’s interesting that when people are searching for information about perceived negative aspects of men or women, they frame it in different ways–men are “grumpy” or “abusive,” while women are “always mad,” and men are “selfish” while women are “crazy.” Those fit in pretty well with who we associate with various emotions or behaviors. That’s all I was getting at.
Comments 13
SB — July 20, 2009
It's interesting, about a month ago I posted a very similar discussion regarding the Google Suggest tool which works based on a series of algorithms to draw from data about the overall popularity of various searches in order to prioritize and rank its refinements. I looked at very similar concepts, but slightly more expanded, of the different expectations for the genders. For example "men/women should..." or "men/women should not..." "men/women like..." etc. The results where very interesting indeed.
genderkid — July 20, 2009
I just tried typing in the same search terms shown in the image and I got different results. I wonder whether the autocomplete feature changes over time or the image was altered to confirm stereotypes.
SB, that's a good idea. Some of the suggestions I got for "women should" were downright scary: "women should obey", "women should stay at home". The suggestions for "men should" weren't so stereotypical, though: "men should do 50 of the housework" and "men should wear skirts".
Nataly — July 20, 2009
Picturing the people making those searches is creepy. I see a lot of battered women, and a lot of men dealing with their depressed partners.
Kelly — July 20, 2009
I got some interesting variations by switching 'women' and 'men' with 'girls' 'boys' 'guys' and 'gals'
dreikin — July 20, 2009
genderkid:
Google modifies the suggestions base on your personal browsing habits, so you'd expect different results between different people, IF they've searched for something similar before. Not sure if the ones above are the default, or are influenced by past search history.
You should be able to get the 'default' lists by logging out of any google accounts you have and then deleting your cookies.
Hank — July 20, 2009
If you type "I am" into the searchbar, the first "suggestion" you get is "I am extremely terrified of Chinese people."
Jeremiah — July 20, 2009
Adults are not the only users of Google. Further, we have no age breakdown for the searches that build this dataset.
Projecting this kind of data onto "insights into popular conceptions of men, women, and relationships" is pretty far fetched, and may I say, a tad irresponsible, too.
Is this blog run by high school students?
Fernando — July 20, 2009
Of course only negative things will be shown. Nobody asks the question "why is my partner so great/patience/nice/compreheensive/perfect?". If people are looking for answers, they have a problem in their hands. It is more accurate to say "what do people google when they are disappointed with their partners".
SB — July 20, 2009
Derikin. That is actually incorrect.The google suggest tool DOES NOT taken into a account your past preferences. As explained on the official FAQ section (http://labs.google.com/suggest/faq.html) Google Suggest works through a JavaScript library based on a series of algorithms which “use a wide range of information to predict the queries users are most likely to want to see” and it draws from data about the overall popularity of various searches in order to prioritize and rank its refinements. Basically, it offers the suggestions on the most frequently searched requests around the world, rather than tailoring any of its suggestions on your personal search history. With the minor exception that offensive searches queries are deliberately filtered out, (such as explicit porn words, queries that lead to porn sites, dirty words, hate and violence terms) overall the suggestions you see can be considered to be representative of the entire Google using population, and is NOT influenced by your search history.
Gwen Sharp, PhD — July 20, 2009
I added a note to the original post--I think I didn't originally clarify what I meant about the image or what I found interesting. Hopefully the note clarifies it a bit.
SB — July 20, 2009
I forgot to post the link if anyone is interested in further examining some of the assumed gender differences, roles, and preferences which appear via the Google Suggest tool. My blog is new still and not getting many read thus far so comments and feedback would be much appreciated!
http://sexualbuzz.blogspot.com/2009/06/google-suggest-sociological.html
Duran — July 20, 2009
I hope the author wasn't logged into google.
If you are logged in, google will use your past search history to suggest.
PattiLain — July 21, 2009
This Google tool provides hours of disturbing entertainment. The suggestions are just as weird for different races and nationalities. For Indian people, black people and white people, I got the common questions of "Why are so racist/stupid/ugly"
Who asks Google these things?!