OP-ED: Search term study gives glimpse at SLC

A story published in the Salt Lake Tribune in August, titled "Google Trends: The Mind of Utah," made some interesting and funny, yet unscientific allegations about the Internet searches of area residents.

The idea that a city's "cyberspace doppelganger" can be determined by charting its top Internet search terms is an intriguing one, and Google Trends helps make that kind of study accessible. However, the story offered a selection of search terms that seemed aimed at digging up the "mundane, bizarre, ribald, homey, gluttonous, addictive and slightly perverse and surreal world" of Salt Lake City.

We hope a clear view will not only be informing and entertaining but helpful to those interested in assessing the social health of the region.

Our method is straightforward: obtain a publicly available and generally accepted list of common search terms, and then use Google Trends to evaluate whether they are more or less popular in Salt Lake City.

Our choice for the list of search terms is the Lycos 50, a list of the top search terms that is updated weekly. Lycos' list has a tradition that is continuous and long by Internet standards.

Why the Lycos 50? One reason is that Lycos collects and collates all the myriad searches, so we didn't have to do a random sampling that might or might not provide a clear look at possible trends. Additionally, the list is digestible, has been edited for misspellings, alternative spellings and variations on search terms. The list is also pornography free. We wanted our results to be accessible to a wide audience, and easily duplicated by those who wish to avoid porn.

Popular searches fall into eight categories: male and female celebrities, technology, toys, games, sports, television shows and seasonal interests.

Google Trends yielded lists of top ten cities for each term, and 67 cities in total. Salt Lake City is the only one in Utah, and it is reasonable to think that their definition includes a large part of the state's population.

What we found can be summarized in five points.

First, people in Salt Lake City search the popular terms a lot: 8th out of 67 cities. There is no way to tell from our limited research if this is because they are following the crowd or the reverse.

Second, Salt Lake City is normal, in the sense that its searches are not higher or lower than expected for any category.

This is actually a bit odd, since one would think our area would be higher than normal for toys, games and perhaps seasonal interests as well.

Third, searches for attractive women may be indicative of more prurient interests, but again, Salt Lake City is fairly normal.

Fourth, there are some women who are searched for primarily for the ready availability of their sexual celebrity. Unscientifically, we grouped Carmen Electra, Pamela Anderson, Paris Hilton, Anna Nicole Smith and Trish Stratus in this subcategory. Here, Salt Lake City reveals something interesting: we are in the top ten for search on the first three women.

Lastly, Salt Lake City does not seem to be a trendsetter for this sex-related celebrity category. We chose the week we examined because there were rumors that nude pictures of Tiger Woods' wife Elin Nordegren were available on the Internet. If Salt Lake City was a trendsetter for finding racy pictures, it should have ranked highly here. It didn't.

If you put all this together, it doesn't seem like Salt Lake City's Internet personality is unusual.

This is important as our state becomes less a reflection of the dominant culture. Mormons are suspicious of the morals and behaviors of non-Mormons, while non-Mormons often view LDS culture as merely good at hiding its seamier side. Our results show that neither view is readily supported.

Marc Dotson is the editor in chief of the University Journal and David Tutfte is an associate professor of economics. They can be reached at mdotson@suujournal.com and tufte@suu.edu.