Crazy old Elmhurst, The Sauciest Town of Them All

By Alicia Dorr in Miscellaneous on May 19, 2006 7:13PM

Pardon if the typing is a little off today because we’re actually holding our sides with laughter with (or at) Elmhurst, Ill., who has recently been crowned king/queen of looking up the term “sex” most often in Google. Only it wasn’t a contest, and we’re 10 years old, so it’s funny.

This sort of reminds us of when we were in grade school and we used to look up the naughtiest sex terms we knew (penis! Vagina! Damn you, Kindergarten Cop!) and leave the school library’s huge dictionary open to that page. While we were laughing and pushing each other into the bushes, however, we never had to worry that Google would be ratting on us. Little did Elmhurst know.

But it’s true. For every time a confused child wondered what their mom meant when she told them all about the snake and the flowerpot, Google was tracking the search with the newest way the company has found to know more about the average American than their spouses. Indeed, Google Trends tracked John and Jane Q. Elmhurst looking up “anal sex” and “vibator,” too.

But after all the childish giggling about Elmhurst dies down, Google Trends will probably still be pretty damn interesting. The totally amazing tool allows you to see what people are looking up, in general, all over the world, and even track terms together to see how topics correspond. We’ll have hours and hours of endless joy from this, and never once will we wonder if Google has also found a way to watch us going to the bathroom while cleaning out our bank account. Because they probably have.