Google Shares its Vast Knowledge of the Internet

Ars Technica reports: Did you know that men on Twitter have an average of 15 percent more followers than women? What about the fact that a full third of YouTube users are "DIYers"—those looking for or posting videos about how to do all manner of things? If you didn't know those things, Google's new Internet stat page aims to flood you with facts gathered from around the Web in a clean, easy-to-use search format.

According to the page, much of the data comes from numerous research firms, such as Comscore, Nielsen, Forrester, and Hitwise, though there are many publications in the list as well—BusinessWeek, The Economist, Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times to name a few. The resource doesn't currently have what we would describe as a mind-boggling number of facts as of yet, but the database is growing and people can submit their own stats (with links to back them up) and the numbers are growing.

Here are some other interesting facts we found while digging around:

• People aged 12-24 are notching up 23 cumulative hours a day, engaged in up to five activities simultaneously. —NMA, April 2009
• Users are 1.5x more attentive when browsing YouTube than when watching TV. — Motorola (with Mindshare) and GM, partnered with YouTube, December 2008
• 64% of C-level execs conduct six or more searches per day to locate business information. — Google, Forbes, BtoB, June 2009, June 2009
• Runners have collectively logged over 93 million miles on nikeplus.com — BusinessWeek, November 2008

It's becoming Google mantra that many users search for information in hopes of finding quick facts, so a page like this seems to serve exactly that function. As noted by ReadWriteWeb though, the curious thing about Google Internet Stats is that it seems to be buried in a UK-based domain and heavy on the UK/Europe facts. It's possible that this is just for testing purposes before a larger rollout, but for now, it's just fun to play with.