Oh A Billion Wicked Thoughts, indeed. The now-landmark (it counts now, right?) work conducted by neuroscientists Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam revealed plenty about our sexy internet, um, habits. But, according to their data, only 4 per cent of the web’s top sites is porn.
Dr Ogas, in his interview with Forbes, conceded that it’s really hard to tell how big the web is and how everyone behaves on it since the internet is so dynamic. But, after collecting data on the million most popular sites out there, he stands confident in the work. That’s significant. It means there just isn’t as much porn out there as what conventional wisdom would have you believe. In fact, the idea that “the internet is for porn” — no one start singing — is largely a myth, with plenty of conflicting reports written that either inflating or understating how many adult sites actually exist. And it’s doubtful that the new .xxx domains that went live last week will upset that trend.
All this still would lead me to believe we watch a LOT of porn on a relative handful of smut sites, but Ogas shot that down as well, saying that porn comprises only 13% of all web searches. What? That seems to fly in the face of every internet intuition I’ve developed. I guess people do care a substantial amount about things that don’t — at least directly — concern sex.
Although the cam site LiveJasmin.com attracts 32 million visitors a month. Go her!
The only question mark that remains is how much porn people actually download, which Ogas admits was also hard to discern for their study, but what with streaming sites like PornHub around, that number might be surprisingly low, too.
Does this perhaps make you feel a little less guilty about all the Bang Bus you watch? [Forbes]
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