What Asians look for in Google

CNNGo Singapore columnist mrbrown got tipped off about some rather strange results when you type in "Why" (with a space) at Google.com.sg. It's probably not meant to be racist, but it certainly shows that people will think about the oddest things, top of which apparently is "why indians are so smelly."

There must be a lot of Curious George types out there, but the reactions are mixed as well, ranging from "surprisingly hilarious" by mrbrown follower Noel to "So much close mindedness (sic) in Singapore" by tushaar. But we think Peters summed it up well, posting "Nothing shameful. It's people trying to understand other people without offending them. Imagine you were to ask an Indian friend the same question? At least by using Google, one is being discreet."

We poke around online to find out how the autocomplete function on Google works, and according to an entry by Asylum.com, Google's "algorithms use a wide range of information to anticipate the queries users are most likely to want to see," according to a company spokesperson who declined to be named (who would blame him?). He added that "the most important signal used for ranking search queries is popularity" and that "sometimes it may not be immediately obvious why a 'funny' suggestion is relevant, but upon further research, you'll discover that the suggestion is actually a popular phrase from a book, movie or other source."

So there you have it, the reasons for the Google autocomplete results might be totally innocent or completely irrelevant. But we can't help wondering what other results are lurking so we went poking around the Google search sites in our other Asian cities, asking the eternal questions of who, what, when, where and how.

• From Google.com.hk, typing in "why" -- why are thin people not fat (because if they were, they wouldn't be called "thin")
• From Google.com.ch, typing in "where" -- where is my mind (god, we hope you didn't lose it)
• From Google.co.in, typing in "what" -- what is a computer (it's the thing you're tapping on now)
• From Google.co.in, typing in "why" -- why are Indians so smart/ugly/cheap/obsessed with fairness (pick one!)
• From Google.com.th, typing in "how" -- how gee (gee?)
• From Google.com.th, typing in "why" -- why I like you (we wish we knew, but try the Aunt Agony section)
• From Google.co.jp, typing in "where" -- where the hell is matt (yes, where the hell is he?!?)