Corruption, poverty, homosexual: Googled most by RP Web surfers

Web surfers in the Philippines, more than any other in the world, are the most frequent users of Google search engine for sites that contain the words corruption, poverty and homosexual. According to statistics compiled by Google’s special Web site called Google Trend (www.google.com/trends), surfers in the Philippines are also the top searchers for the words "drugs," "love," and "Brad Pitt." The Philippines also placed second for users searching the word "terrorism." Google computes the number of times a term has been inquired on its search engine for a specific country from January 2004 up to present. It then compares the count in relation to the region's total Web searches. By using Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, the Web site also traces and then tallies where the particular searches were made. Corruption While Germany-based Transparency International (www.transparency.org) listed Somalia and Myanmar as the most corrupt countries for 2007, Internet users in the Philippines and South Africa seemed to have an eager curiosity about corruption. After all, the Arroyo administration has been rocked with controversies in the past four years involving alleged election fraud and more recently anomalous government deals as well as scathing allegations of massive payoffs to politicians. Other countries in the top 10 for "corruption" searches included three more Asian countries, two in North America, and one each in Europe, Africa and Oceania. The Philippines is joined by Pakistan and South Africa to complete the top three positions for Web searches for the word "poverty." Love and homosexual While other ranking regions either slid down or inched up over the course of four years, Web surfers using the keyword "love" in their searches helped the Philippines hold on to the top spot every single year. From 2004 to 2007, the Philippines would always emerge No. 1 while Australia, the United States and Canada would switch places in second, third and fourth positions. For "homosexual" Internet searchers, the same trend was evident for the Philippines as it stayed on the list's summit while Mexico, Chile and Venezuela alternately battled it out for the next three spots. For instance, Mexico held the third spot in 2004 but gradually slipped to sixth place by 2007. Venezuela, meanwhile, was nowhere in the Top 10 in 2004 and 2005 but made an impressive debut at No. 4 in 2006 and shot up to the second spot a year later. 'Desperate' uproar Recently, the online petition demanding an apology for a purported racial slur against Filipino medical practitioners has already amassed more than 120,000 signatories. However, the online petition does not seem to be the lone Internet portal benefiting from the controversial Desperate Housewives uproar. The show's "some med school in the Philippines" remark suddenly spiked up Web searches in the Philippines about the American series, easily dislodging France off the top spot. From mid September to early October of this year France, Ireland and Canada have to settle for the runner-up positions. The trend Web site's linear graph showed an uphill climb for Web searches about the show in the first few days of October, peaking on October 4 or two days after the news about the remark spread. Other popular keywords The rest of the list showed that users in Mexico searched for "Britney Spears" the most and those in Canada scoured the World Wide Web for the word “Tom Cruise." Below is a list of the top searchers for selected keywords, in order from first to third place: "War" - Australia, United States, United Kingdom "Hate" - Australia, Canada, United States "Marijuana" - Canada, United States, Australia "Iraq" - United States, Australia, Canada "Taliban" - Pakistan, Australia, Canada "Car bomb" - Australia, United States, Canada "Jihad" - Morocco, Indonesia, Pakistan "Hangover" - Ireland, United Kingdom, United States "Tom Cruise" - Canada, United States, Australia "Brad Pitt" - Argentina, Peru, Mexico "Britney Spears" - Mexico, Venezuela, Canada "David Beckham" - Venezuela, United Kingdom, Mexico "Botox" - Australia, United States, United Kingdom "Viagra" - Italy, United Kingdom, Germany - GMANews.TV