What We Ask Google - by Simon Rogers (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Ever wondered what goes through other people's minds--their silly questions, their inner anxieties, hopes, and dreams?

In What We Ask Google, Simon Rogers explores insights from the world's biggest dataset: an epic snapshot, two decades long and counting, of our collective brain. What it reveals about us might surprise you.

Every June, for instance, the world sees a spike in searches for "How to help a bee." Reassuringly, people consistently want to know, "Where to donate blood?" after natural disasters. And despite superficial differences (such as the deeply divided world map of cat people vs. dog people), humanity has a lot more in common than we often acknowledge. After all, everywhere around the world, it's two a.m. when parents want to know how to get their baby to sleep.

Brimming with insights that vary from the playful to the profound, What We Ask Google delves into the momentous and the mundane secrets of what we ask when we get the chance to ask anything, offering a surprisingly hopeful picture of humankind.

Review Quotes

"The first thing you need to know about Simon Rogers is his admirable ability to write a book filled with data, facts and figures that is so enjoyable to read.... Brimming with insights that vary from the playful to the profound, WHAT WE ASK GOOGLE delves into the momentous and the mundane secrets of what we ask when we get the chance to ask anything, offering a surprisingly hopeful picture of humankind." --WMNF.org

"Surely, "What We Ask Google" is for the inquisitive reader because it's fun and serious, both, but it's also for anyone who needs to know data and wants to know where to find it. If you want a fascinating dive into curiosity and knowledge, look it up." --Guam Daily Post
"A revealing look at how the questions we ask speak to who we are." --Kirkus

"This view from the other side of the search box is both charming and insightful, tapping into a deep well of curiosity." --Tim Harford, bestselling author of The Undercover Economist and The Data Detective

"What We Ask Google is a deeply human window into our shared curiosity, and the future it is already creating. By analyzing billions of the searches, Rogers reveals how those patterns--when seen at scale--offer a rare, data-driven understanding of who we are and how societies respond to uncertainty. This is the most honest portrait of humanity you'll ever read." --Amy Webb, author of The Signals Are Talking and The Big Nine

About the Author

Simon Rogers is Google's data editor, leading a team of data journalists, analysts, and visualizers to tell stories with Google's data. Previously, he was Twitter's first ever data editor, and he is also the author of Facts Are Sacred, based on The Guardian's Datablog, which he helped launch. A lecturer in Data Journalism at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism in San Francisco, he has received the Royal Statistical Society's award for statistical excellence in journalism. He lives with his family in San Francisco.