When it comes to embarrassing queries, Google has definitely seen the worst of it. From the many people wondering about the meaning of life and the ones who forgot what five times eleven equals to, to the 12-year-olds all around the world searching for terms such as ‘big boobs’ or ‘naked woman’, it’s safe to say that we find it easier to ask complicated (read mortifying) questions to our search engine instead of our friends or family. And, as you probably guessed it by now, because you’re part of it too, sex-related queries are among the most Googled questions—a recent Google study even showed that last month, in the UK, there have been precisely 449,590 of those.
This inspired the experts at ShowersToYou to scrape the internet to find out what sort of questions are being asked exactly and by whom. Taking to Google Adwords, ShowersToYou found questions including ‘sex’, ‘condoms’, ‘lube’, ‘penis size’ and more. Interested in which regions are the most curious about sex, the company also looked into the regional breakdown of sex-related queries.
And guess which region had the highest number of searches that included the word ‘sex’? If you pointed the finger at London, you were right! The capital ranked number one with 135,000 monthly searches, followed by the South East with 68,500 monthly searches and the North West with 40,480 searches.
The types of questions being asked on Google included ‘how to have sex?’, ‘when’s the best time to have sex?’ and ‘Is it ok to have sex every day?’.
London was also revealed as the region where the term ‘condoms’ was searched the most, with 8,100 searches in a month. The North West followed behind with 3,090 searches. Most searched questions included ‘what condoms feel the best?’, ‘do condoms kill the feeling?’ and ‘which condoms are the safest?’.
As for the cities asking the most questions about condoms, Birmingham comes second after London with 1,600 monthly searches. In third and fourth place come Manchester and Bristol with 720 searches each.
The region looking for the word ‘lube’ the most after London, of course, which ranked first with 3,600 monthly searches, is the North West with 1,670 searches. The types of questions being asked include ‘what does lube do for women?’, ‘what is good lube?’ and ‘does lube have side effects?’.
As you’ve probably figured by now—at least, I sure hope you have—London always came first when it comes to sex-related searches, even the ones about ‘penis size’. London had 1,300 monthly searches while the North West had 360 and the West Midlands 310 searches.
City-wise, 170 people in Birmingham had penis size-related queries and 110 in Bristol.
While this data should be taken with a pinch of salt—even I can admit to questionable Google searches when bored—this recent research highlights the UK’s obsession with all things sex-related. And who could blame us? There’s nothing wrong with it, on the contrary, I almost feel reassured knowing how many people wonder about the most efficient condoms or whether lube can help their partner receive more pleasure.
While I can say for sure that many (like, a lot) of these Google searches are utterly ridiculous and should probably be asked to some sort of professional, it seems like most of the UK’s sex-related queries seem somewhat healthy. Let’s celebrate this small victory while we can—or before someone publishes a survey on the most searched questions of 2020…