See note below
A massive study claims to have identified patterns in Internet searches that correspond--and offer insight into--sexual desires.
Co-authors Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam examined erotic content online from around the world, including a billion anonymous Web searches, a million pornographic websites, a million erotic videos and more. The pair have turned their research into a book titled A Billion Wicked Thoughts.
"Sex therapists haven't known which interests are common and which are rare," Ogas told the New York Post. "We probably now know more than ever before."
Using search engine Dogpile to crunch data from Google, Bing and Yahoo, the authors ranked the most popular search terms relating to sex. According to the Post, the top-ten terms are as follows:
- Youth (13.5%)
(Note: A previous version of this top ten list included "butts" (.9%) and "cheerleaders" (.1%) as the 9th and 10th most popular queries, respectively. Ogas clarified that "butts" and "cheerleaders" are the 21st and 79th most popular searches, respectively, and that "amateurs," "mature" and "animation" are the 8th, 9th, and 10th most popular searches.)
The authors also discuss trends among homosexuals and hetrosexuals, as well as among males and females.
For example, straight males enjoy a wide variety of erotica, including sites featuring transsexuals and elderly women. The study also found that both gay and straight men favor chests, buttocks and feet (in that order).
As for the differences between men and women, the researchers found that men are generally easier to turn on than women.
"Women need to feel comfortable and safe and desired as well as physically attracted," Ogas told The Daily Beast.
You can read a summary of the study's findings at the New York Post.