The top ‘how to’ searches

From learning how to kiss to how to lose weight, Google’s most searched questions give us an insight into humanity’s daily trials and tribulations

Tsearches also include queries about how to do the most mundane things such as making pancakes, tying a tie and making money. Results showed North Americans and East Asians needed most help fixing their toilets while people in former Soviet countries were more likely to be googling how to fix their washing machines. According to researchers at Google’s News Lab, “how to” searchers have increased by more than 140 per cent since 2004.

Most of that interest is in how to “fix” things, often mundane household items such as fridges and toilets.

The top 10 “how to” questions include how to write a cover letter and how to lose belly flat.

The most googled question was how to tie a necktie followed by how to kiss.

Working with data journalist Xaquin Gonzalez Veira, researchers created a visual essay about things people around the world need help fixing. “We looked at what things we need the most help with around the house, from the simplest how-to-fit-a-bulb kind of fixes, to those fixes for which we know we need a professional, but our ego makes us take upon ourselves to at least try,” said Veira.

Researchers found questions about walls, doors and windows were the most searched items in almost every country.

“North Americans and East Asians need their toilets, people in former Soviet countries are fearless enough to attempt fixing their own washing machines, warmer climates can’t live without a fridge,” he said.

“We have become so dependent on offloading, on relieving our brains from keeping certain basic information that we’ve forgotten how to do some fairly basic grown-up tasks.”

In the top 100 “how to” questions worldwide, people had asked how to boil an egg, cook rice, poach an egg and baking a cake.

There were also lots of coming-ofage questions such as how to tell if a girl likes you, get a girl to like you and how to ask a girl out. Some of the questions were more practical, such as how to tune a guitar and jump a car.

Some of the most interesting seasonal “how to” questions include “how to ask someone to the prom”, which peaks around March, and “how to lose weight” that peaks in January and then slumps for the rest of the year.

The data visualisation is the latest by Google News Labs to re-examine how news designers can tell stories using new types of data.