Search: Tell Them How-To Do It

People want to know how to tie a necktie and would really like their favorite search engine to give them a hand. We may be in the midst of the greatest deployment of knowledge to the world. That's a good thing, because it looks like the little lessons one might expect people to know haven't followed them through life.

Time.com explaining how four weeks of searches showed a couple of things about Americans:

1) We're way too comfortable asking a search engine about anything, and; 2) We don't seem to have a comfortable grasp on some very basic concepts.

Here's the top ten how-to requests Hitwise found for US searches for the four weeks ended July 21st:

1. How to tie a tie 2. How to have sex 3. How to kiss 4. How to lose weight 5. How to write a resume 6. How to levitate 7. How to draw 8. How to get pregnant 9. How to make out 10. How to make a video

Number six, of course, is quite easy in principle, less so in execution: first, get airborne; second, stay there. On a serious note, there are some things a search engine probably isn't going to be able to help anyone do.

Quite a few Murdok readers reside in the U.K. We cherish their visits, and understand they may indulge on occasion in taking a friendly swipe at Americans. Before they do so based on the above list, they need to take a look at what Hitwise analyst

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