educational

Speaking Gay Internationally

The GayCrawler.com search engine team has studied the searches carried out during recent visits to their Internet directory dedicated to the gay community. This study is based on searches carried out during the months of April, May and June 2004 on more than 53,000 keywords, and was undertaken thanks to the technology of Click4gay.net, a leader in sponsored links advertising in the gay market.

This top keywords list reveals the differences in interests between the gay and lesbian communities of Europe and North America. Similarly, Anglophones, Francophones and Hispanophones do not share the same search topics.

The top keywords list is divided between North American and European Internet users, and according to six search themes. Searches relating to adult sites (pornographic) are at the top of the list with more than 58% of searches. The "dating and chat" theme comes in second with 16%, followed by travel (12%), business (7%), sports (4%) and, finally, the "help & support" theme concerning support and rights defense associations (3%).

Here's the top 10 keywords / phrases in each category:


58% "adult"

US/Canada
1. gay sex
2. free gay sex
3. gay sex toy
4. gay sex video
5. gay sex porn
6. gay bear
7. first time gay
8. pornstar
9. asian sex
10. latino sex

Europe
1. gay sex
2. gay sex toy
3. free gay sex
4. gay sex shop
5. gay sex pic
6. adult sex shop
7. gay phone sex
8. first gay sex
9. gay black sex
10. free gay sex videos

16% "dating and chat"
US/Canada
1. gay dating
2. gay chat room
3. gay personal ads
4. interracial dating
5. black gay dating
6. adult dating gay
7. dating gay jewish
8. christian dating
9. gay profile
10. personal pic
Europe
1. free gay chat
2. uk gay chat
3. gay chat line
4. gay dating uk
5. speed dating
6. dating in spain
7. personal ad
8. uk personal
9. gay profiles
10. personals profile dating

12% "travel"
US/Canada
1. travel agency
2. travel guide
3. travel agencies
4. travel mexico
5. travel montreal
6. travel nyc
7. travel miami
8. san francisco
9. caribbean
10. gay cruise
Europe
1. travel agent
2. travel guide
3. travel agencies
4. travel insurance
5. travel gay asia
6. travel turkey
7. Las Palomas
8. Sitges
9. Benidorm
10. Mykonos

7% "business"
US/Canada
1. gay shopping
2. gay sex shop
3. real estate
4. gay business
5. underwear
6. shopping
7. gay dvd shop
8. finance gay
9. chamber of commerce
10. business directory
Europe
1. gay sex shop
2. underwear
3. gay night club
4. gay wedding
5. clothes
6. gay marketing
7. gay shopping
8. gay dvd shop
9. finance gay lesbian tax
10. gay business venture groups

4% "sports"
US/Canada
1. gay water sport
2. gay game
3. gay rodeo
4. gay hockey
5. league softball
6. cycling gay
7. gay volleyball
8. gay golf
9. gay outdoor
10. scuba diving
Europe
1. gay rugby
2. gay soccer
3. gay ski week
4. gay rugby players
5. gay games
6. EuroGames
7. gay Cycling
8. gay league
9. gay golf
10. tennis gay

3% "help & support"
US/Canada
1. marriage support
2. teen support
3. gay lesbian support
4. adoption gay support
5. civil right
6. right activist
7. first time sex
8. gay right in Canada
9. equal gay right
10. aids gay hiv
Europe
1. support parents gays
2. gay marriage support
3. gay rights legislation
4. gay teen help
5. gay lesbian support london
6. gay parenting
7. adoption gay couples
8. gay rights in america
9. gay civil weddings
10. gay organisations

Keywords from the adult and dating themes highlight the difference of interests of a racial or ethnic nature between Americans and Europeans. The travel theme also indicates that these communities do not choose the same "gay friendly" destinations. As for business, underwear and DVDs are very popular, and North Americans rank three keywords relating to business in the gay community. Rugby and soccer are apparently more popular in Europe! Finally, marriage and adoption dominate the last theme.

The origin of users is also interesting to study. North Americans are a majority, but we can also see that residents of North Africa are present among Francophone users. Most surprisingly, Hispanophone users come mostly from the United States, rather than from Spain!

Here's the breakdown of languages by country:

English Speaking
1. United States
2. Canada
3. UK & Ireland
4. Australia
5. New Zealand
6. South Africa
Spanish Speaking
1. United States
2. Spain
3. Uruguay
4. Argentina
5. Chile
6. Venezuela
7. Costa Rica
8. Republica Dominicana
9. Peru
French Speaking
1. France
2. Switzerland
3. Belgium
4. Quebec Canada
5. Luxembourg
6. Morocco
7. Algeria
8. Tunisia
9. Lebanon
Others Languages
1. Germany
2. Netherlands
3. Finland
4. Poland
5. Sweden
6. Greece
7. China
8. Russia
9. Thailand

To conclude, note that 68% of our surfers use categories to perform searches.

Through the GayCrawler.com service, users may access more than 25,000 sites in more than 327 categories of specific interest to the gay and lesbian community. Each site indexed in the GayCrawler.com database is individually registered by surfers who have a detailed knowledge of the topic; this means that search results are more reliable and, therefore, more relevant to GayCrawler.com users. Anybody can submit a pertinent Web site to be added to the database. However, GayCrawler.com might refuse a Web site if its content is considered inappropriate.

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Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

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