If you type into Google the words “Why is Australia so,” you will see options selected by Google’s algorithms as most likely to be the words to complete the question, based on actual questions in the past. For Australia, the top three questions are why is it so (1) dry, (2) boring, and (3) expensive. Not exactly a marketer’s dream. For the U.S., the top three are (1) powerful, (2) rich, and (3) religious. Not bad. For a truly bad set, North Korea is hard to beat: (1) poor, (2) dangerous, (3) crazy. Russia is not much better: (1) big, (2) poor, (3) corrupt. The best set I have seen is for Denmark: (1) happy, (2) the happiest country, and (3) called Denmark. I don’ t know how the last one got in there.
If you wanted to ask Google a question about your home country (completing the question yourself), what would you actually ask? What would your question say about your values and perspective?
Can you think of any other information you might get from Google using “Why is X so?” How about with regard to substances? The top three completing words for sugar are: bad, addictive, bad for us. These results suggest that sugar industry may have rough times ahead. How about molly (MDMA, ecstasy)? Why is molly so… The top three completing words: dangerous, hard to find, expensive. Molly’s future seems mixed.
Can you see other ways you can use the Google algorithms to find out something useful regarding what individuals are asking about?
John Malouff, PhD, JD, Assoc Prof of Psychology
What a fascinating post John. At first, I was thinking you have wayyy too much time on your hands; but, then I too became fascinated. I decided to ask a pertinent question to us at the moment “Why are romantic relationships so?” The top three completing words are: important, hard, difficult. In fact, important was actually number one & three. In a similar vein, the question “Why are exciting relationships so?” came up with: hard, complicated, difficult and important. It was nice to see that only one completing word comes up for the question “Why is studying psychology so?” Important 🙂
Hi Susan. Those are great applications of the “research” method I suggested!
Hi,
My dad showed me this, and I said, type in “why is life so” 1 hard 2 boring 3 unfair. I had to wait for number 4 which was “worth living”. Wow!
Isabeau
Hi Isabeau. You used clever phrasing. I suspect that the exact phrasing Google often received about number 4 was: “Why is life worth living?” That would place all four questions as potentially important to the well being and continued living of the person asking. To some extent Google serves as the collective brain of humanity.