A recent article (published on March 18, 2014) by Jennifer Booton on www.foxbusiness.com grabbed my attention. It is titled "Need to Hide a Corpse? Ask Google".
According to Booten: “Apparently thousands of people a year want to know how to hide a dead body. Offering further evidence of just how creepy the Internet can be when it wants to be, new research from Australian search optimization agency Search Factory highlights the oddest things people search for each month on Google (GOOG).
The research was born when the Brisbane-based team started wondering how Google rates the auto-complete suggestions that pop up when typing in search queries on Google.com. For example, simply typing in the letters “why do monk…” will produce results ranging from “why do monks shave their heads” to “why do monkeys eat bananas.”
However, after digging a little deeper, things got weird. “Scarily, one of the factors Google auto-complete takes into account when coming up with these ‘guesses’ is how often these similar searches are conducted,” Search Factory said. “This got us thinking, just how much search volume is there for some of Google’s weirdest auto-complete suggestions?”
Then, drawing from original research done by, along with data compiled by www.searchfactory.com, she relates some rather astounding information.
For instance, in most any given month, there is apparently an average of around…
1,000 searches for “how to hide a dead body”…
1,900 searches for “how to get away with murder”…
110 people a month simply searching “cat dating”…
390 people wanting to know how to make their cat love them…
18,100 searches asking whether Lady Gaga is a man…
9,900 wanting to know “how to mend a broken heart”…
5,400 searches asking “how to have an affair”…
40,500 wanting to know “why did I get married?”…
22,000 people who express hatred toward their job…
40,500 asking for tricks on winning the lottery...
and the “coup de grace”…
more than 4,400 people asking Google “how to Google”!
Now I, for one, am glad some person or persons invented the internet. For me, like most people, it has become an indispensable part of my daily life. In fact, I often wonder how I got along without it. Granted, the World Wide Web is often used for less than worthy pursuits. (I have read that an astounding 70% of web pages worldwide are devoted to pornography!). That notwithstanding, the internet is has still proven to be a boon for information junkies like me.
And although I would never foresee myself searching for tips on how to hide a corpse (something I can only hope is done by aspiring mystery writers), I do enjoy being able to research most any reasonable subject at a moment’s notice. As Aristotle once said, few pleasures compare with learning something new.
Thus, for me, it is gratifying to be able to satisfy my curiosity about the world in which I live, especially at what amounts to a moment’s notice. By comparison, thirty years ago, I might write a letter to a library, publisher, professor, etc…, requesting information, and then have to wait as long as two months or more for a reply.
And yet, as amazing a tool as it is, I do not actually need the internet to discover the answer to life’s single most important question. Some 2,000 years before the digital world ever came to be, the New Testament Book of "The Acts of the Apostles" was written by a physician named Luke who was present and witnessed most of the events recorded.
In the sixteenth chapter (verses 25-34), we have the record of a conversation that once took place in the Greek city of Philippi. The Apostle Paul and his assistant Silas had been beaten and imprisoned there for proclaiming the good news of Jesus. Luke writes:
About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.
The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought
the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized.
The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.
Like the Philippian jailer, I asked a similar question one spring evening back in 1970. And I too found the same answer as he did. Better yet, I found the same joy! I hope you share a similar testimony. If not, I challenge you to consider the significance of the Bible's message, especially as concerns the person and work of Jesus Christ.
For, in searching for and finding the answer to the question, “What must I do to be saved?”, one succeeds in satisfying not only the curiosity of the mind, but also the longing of the heart. And that alone produces authentic, genuine joy!
SOURCES: http://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2014/03/1
8/need-to-hide-corpse-ask-google/.
Booten's business article is based on another one located at: http://searchfactory.com.au/blog/the-crazy-st-people-search-for
-on-google/. My apologies for the latter’s implied title.
Lastly, Aristotle deals with the pleasures of learning in his work titled "Rhetoric". Cf.: http://www.springerreference.com/docs/h
tml/chapterdbid/320261.html.
According to Booten: “Apparently thousands of people a year want to know how to hide a dead body. Offering further evidence of just how creepy the Internet can be when it wants to be, new research from Australian search optimization agency Search Factory highlights the oddest things people search for each month on Google (GOOG).
The research was born when the Brisbane-based team started wondering how Google rates the auto-complete suggestions that pop up when typing in search queries on Google.com. For example, simply typing in the letters “why do monk…” will produce results ranging from “why do monks shave their heads” to “why do monkeys eat bananas.”
However, after digging a little deeper, things got weird. “Scarily, one of the factors Google auto-complete takes into account when coming up with these ‘guesses’ is how often these similar searches are conducted,” Search Factory said. “This got us thinking, just how much search volume is there for some of Google’s weirdest auto-complete suggestions?”
Then, drawing from original research done by, along with data compiled by www.searchfactory.com, she relates some rather astounding information.
For instance, in most any given month, there is apparently an average of around…
1,000 searches for “how to hide a dead body”…
1,900 searches for “how to get away with murder”…
110 people a month simply searching “cat dating”…
390 people wanting to know how to make their cat love them…
18,100 searches asking whether Lady Gaga is a man…
9,900 wanting to know “how to mend a broken heart”…
5,400 searches asking “how to have an affair”…
40,500 wanting to know “why did I get married?”…
22,000 people who express hatred toward their job…
40,500 asking for tricks on winning the lottery...
and the “coup de grace”…
more than 4,400 people asking Google “how to Google”!
Now I, for one, am glad some person or persons invented the internet. For me, like most people, it has become an indispensable part of my daily life. In fact, I often wonder how I got along without it. Granted, the World Wide Web is often used for less than worthy pursuits. (I have read that an astounding 70% of web pages worldwide are devoted to pornography!). That notwithstanding, the internet is has still proven to be a boon for information junkies like me.
And although I would never foresee myself searching for tips on how to hide a corpse (something I can only hope is done by aspiring mystery writers), I do enjoy being able to research most any reasonable subject at a moment’s notice. As Aristotle once said, few pleasures compare with learning something new.
Thus, for me, it is gratifying to be able to satisfy my curiosity about the world in which I live, especially at what amounts to a moment’s notice. By comparison, thirty years ago, I might write a letter to a library, publisher, professor, etc…, requesting information, and then have to wait as long as two months or more for a reply.
And yet, as amazing a tool as it is, I do not actually need the internet to discover the answer to life’s single most important question. Some 2,000 years before the digital world ever came to be, the New Testament Book of "The Acts of the Apostles" was written by a physician named Luke who was present and witnessed most of the events recorded.
In the sixteenth chapter (verses 25-34), we have the record of a conversation that once took place in the Greek city of Philippi. The Apostle Paul and his assistant Silas had been beaten and imprisoned there for proclaiming the good news of Jesus. Luke writes:
About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.
The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought
the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized.
The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.
Like the Philippian jailer, I asked a similar question one spring evening back in 1970. And I too found the same answer as he did. Better yet, I found the same joy! I hope you share a similar testimony. If not, I challenge you to consider the significance of the Bible's message, especially as concerns the person and work of Jesus Christ.
For, in searching for and finding the answer to the question, “What must I do to be saved?”, one succeeds in satisfying not only the curiosity of the mind, but also the longing of the heart. And that alone produces authentic, genuine joy!
SOURCES: http://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2014/03/1
8/need-to-hide-corpse-ask-google/.
Booten's business article is based on another one located at: http://searchfactory.com.au/blog/the-crazy-st-people-search-for
-on-google/. My apologies for the latter’s implied title.
Lastly, Aristotle deals with the pleasures of learning in his work titled "Rhetoric". Cf.: http://www.springerreference.com/docs/h
tml/chapterdbid/320261.html.