Peek Inside the Google Machine: What We Buy and Sell

by PT on September 4, 2009

Today I thought I’d do something a little different. Below are the Google “query suggestions” for the terms “buy a” and “sell my”.

Because Google bases their suggestions on data from what people actually search for, I’m assuming this is a list of the most searched for terms that begin with “buy a” and “sell my”. Pretty cool, huh?

What People Want to Buy

People are taking to the Internet and using the ole Google machine to potentially spend their hard-earned money on the following items:

Google Results Buy

A Monkey?! Really!? Are that many people looking to buy a monkey? Sometimes you amaze me, Google Box. Scratch that “most searched for” assumption above. More thoughts:

What People Need to Sell

Times are tough. Lots of folks are selling these days. Let’s peek at some of the things they want to cash in on:

Google Results Sell

In case you didn’t know, “wow” stands for World of Warcraft, the extremely popular online role playing game. It appears that the popularity of the game has led to a side market of buying and selling accounts. Accounts can sell in the thousands. More thoughts:

  • Seeing timeshare on the sell list and not on the buy list (as apposed to cars and houses) likely indicates the buyer has all the power in that market. It is apparently not a good time to be selling a timeshare. Is there ever a good time? Head’s up, another scam alert: “Why Timeshare Resale Scams Don’t Deliver.”
  • Would you ever sell your hair? This was listed as one of my “52 Ways to Make Extra Money.”
  • The last few items look like prime Craig’s List and eBay material: books, textbooks, cell phones, and the much desired “stuff”. Actually, Mrs. PT’s been selling her old textbooks on Amazon. She’s promised a guest post on that soon.

Anyway, that’s about all I’ve got here. Have a great weekend.

  1. Walking Directions From Google: It’s Cheaper To Walk Than Drive
  2. Use Google Docs to Save Big and Make Life Easy
  3. Prime Time Money Lifehack: Use Google Alerts to Find Free Stuff
  4. Results of a Week Without Spending
  5. How to Bargain in a Slow Economy

{ 2 trackbacks }

Carnival of Personal Finance 221- Labour Day Edition | Financial Highway
September 8, 2009 at 1:06 am
Economy and your Finances Carnival – September 13, 2009
September 13, 2009 at 3:04 am

{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }

Nate @ Debt-free Scholar September 4, 2009 at 8:09 am

I agree that hosting at BlueHost.com is excellent. However, I recommend NameCheap.com for domain names. They are cheap, reliable, and… Google likes them! Unlike 1&1, which Google does not like.

Tom @ Canadian Finance Blog September 4, 2009 at 10:44 am

Is there an ETF for monkey commodities? You might as well profit from your research!

Jesse September 5, 2009 at 6:52 pm

There is an algorithm to the suggested searches that I believe has been published in the past but it is the most popular searches. So I guess there is a market for monkeys ;) As for the domain name, I would go with godaddy.com for that as they always have coupon codes to drop the price of the domain purchase to about $7. Even namecheap.com is 10$ but I would never host with Godaddy.com. Bluehost.com is def a good choice there.

SingleGuyMoney September 6, 2009 at 11:38 am

Pretty cool idea for a post!

Ryan September 7, 2009 at 9:58 am

Fasincated by your findings. I googled “buy a monkey” and here’s one of the top finds. Primate Store? Are you kidding? This world’s messed up.

http://www.primatestore.com/forsale.asp

Andy September 8, 2009 at 12:54 pm

Very interesting post. Actually the criteria is based on the local user settings and surronding area (very targetted). So someone in your neighborhood is buying monkeys!!! I assume you are too busy for that running a succesful PF blog and all :)

If you want another funny google-ology, go to google maps and get directions from anywhere in American to Australia. Read the directions provided for a laugh!

Chris January 23, 2010 at 5:46 pm

Thanks for the link PT. Any body in the world who owns a timeshare will learn shortly after they buy it that it’s next to impossible to sell it. In fact I was able to sell mine for about 10 cents on the dollar. Talk about being ripped off.

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