Hello India, tell me how you're doing.

Since this post is about international stuff I will write it in English.

If I were to bet my money on a foreign country, I would go for India. I base this solely on the search trends that I'm seeing on one of my international websites, Essays.se. This is not a scientific approach, but still, I think it says a lot.

Short background: I run a website called Essays.se. At Essays.se visitors from all over the world can search for and download university essays from Swedish universites (full text). Most visitors find their way to the website by searching for academic search terms on Google. Essays.se has visitors from more than 200 countries (actually almost all countries with internet connections) and thanks to Google Analytics I can break down the statistics on what search terms visitors from different countries use.



The first thing I'd like to point out as extraordinary: India brings almost as many visitors to the website as the United States does. (About 30.000 a month.) This even though there are almost six times as many internet users in the USA (approximately 240 million, versus 40 million in India). So what are the people of India up to? If you are asking me, they are getting an education. That's why I'll bet my money on India.

* Let's begin with having a look at the top 9 search terms by visitors from the USA:

1. people having sex
   
2. human characteristics list
3. fuchsian group
4. list of human characteristics
5. persuasive essay on obama
6. advantages of computer
7. define communication
8. election 2008 essay
9. disadvantages of globalization
   

To conclude: Sex, the election, and some other things. To America's defense (?) the combination people having sex also tops the list for visitors from Great Britain and Australia.

* Here are the top 9 search terms for visitors from India:

1. stock out risk
2. advantages of computer
3. industrial use of information technology
4. ecological threats
5. importance of communication for a manager
6. disadvantages of computer
7. recent trends in it
8. advantages of information technology
9. water pollution in india

The Indians are mostly interested in information technology. But also about ecological threats and water pollution. (Nothing about sex here.)

* Let's have a look at the top 9 search terms for visitors from China...

1. porter's five force case
2. international marketing case
3. disadvantages of globalization
4. intercultural negotiation
5. particle filter code
6. csr with chinese characteristics
7. ikea culture
8. pornographic animation
9. ikea shanghai

No search terms for IT or ecological threats. However, a lot of marketing and cultural aspects. As a swede it's fun to see that the Chinese are especially interested in IKEA.

* Let's keep going. Here's the top 9 search terms for visitors from Argentina:

1. advantages of tourism
2. essay about consumer society
3. hybrid identity
4. partial element equivalent circuit
5. advantages and disadvantages of sports
6. advertising thesis
7. boyhood coetzee analysis
8. cohesive devices
9. content based learning

Tourism tops the list. And a lot of technology, too. And a little culture.

* And at last, here is the top 9 list for the approximately 160 visitors from Zimbabwe, the poor and troubled sub-saharan African country:

1. roles of ngos in rural development
2. the role of ngos in rural development
3. achieving competitive advantage through total quality management
4. advantages of information technology
5. literature review on risk management in banks
6. literature review information technology and banking
7. role of ngos in rural development
8. roles of ngo's in rural development
9. roles played by ngos in rural development

Here almost ALL of the top search combinations are about NGO's (and how they can help with rural development). Quite interesting, but a little sad, too.

OK, I will stop there, even though many other countries also have interesting search combinations that "stick out" and tell you a lot about the country in question. For example the search term effects of crime on tourist destination sticks out with visitors from South Africa. And microcredit chile sticks out with visitors from Chile. Etc...

If you thought this post was interesting, please link to it. And don't forget to invest in India... :)