David Heath
Tuesday, 06 October 2009 18:03
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An analysis of Wiki pageloads, while probably imperfect, reveals more about human nature than we’d probably prefer was known.
The
wikistics site (pronounced wi-KIS-tics) is an attempt to track the dominant queries and pageloads on the various wikimedia sites (mainly Wikipedia, of course). By tracking pageloads, an accumulation of interesting searches can be tallied.
So, according to wikistics, what do we seek? Ruling out a large number of hits on 'procedural pages' and other errors (visit the link and you’ll see what we mean), the biggest hit is for 'wiki' itself. One can only assume that we have no idea what it means!
The data spans 391 days (up until July this year) and has as its Top 10:
Wiki
YouTube
The Beatles
Barack Obama
Wikipedia
Facebook
Michael Jackson
United States
Favicon.ico
Sarah Palin
Clearly the majority of searchers are USAnians, additionally, they're not seeking the rude bits. Or are they?
Maybe they are. Sex is at 12, Vagina at 29 (immediately above Canada, Australia and John McCain) and Penis at 37.
Interestingly, there is a wide range of TV shows (Lost, Scrubs and House in particular) scattered through the higher rankings.
"China' and 'List of Presidents of the United States' are carefully sandwiched between 'Sexual intercourse" and "Anal sex." What could be more appropriate?
Other than the fact that "YouPorn" ranks immediately above "Jesus." What can I say!
I suggest you look and see where your own 'interests' lie.