pomtastic

THE words 'debt' and 'help' were two of the most common words punched into the internet search engine Google during 2010, reflecting the stress of tightening household budgets across Australia.

This ties in with my observations depsite the newspapers being full of 'boom', 'everyone's earning loadsa money' hype. As I've said numerous times on here before, it's all bollocks. People are struggling and this has been a trend for the last couple of years. The one's who have taken on big mortgages are the losers IMO and it's all coming home to roost. Plenty of people on this site are expressing similar experiences that cost of living is getting tough for many ordinary, hard working people.

The Aussie dream is over, high housing costs have screwed the nation.

http://www.news.com.au/money/money-m...-1225969951226

Wendy

Well the average Aussie doesn't (apparently) use the internet as they are still (apparently) in the early 80's and don't know what it is. So it must be just us skint poms that are searching for these words

Pollyana

Looking at some of the garbage that comes up when you search for "debt help", it makes you wonder how many people end up worse off than ever after searching.....

asprilla

Firstly this is an extremely poor quality news article. We can't see where in the rankings "debt" and "help" come up. They could be in the top 100, top 1,000 or maybe they scrape into the top 10,000 list of queries.

Here are the actual rankings:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/...egions/au.html

Why can't we see any more detail in the article ? The answer is simple - the story was simply contrived by a journalist, from a google press release/interview. The interview would have covered a wide range of topics, including personal finance. Anyone with an ounce of sense should be able to see this.

The words "debt" and "help" are typed into google every day. But this article doesn't give us any indication of whether or not these words are being searched on more frequently. This isn't a newsworthy story!


Pomtastic - you aren't doing your credibility any favours by using this article to support your views !

asprilla

"google trends" is the website we need to look at, if we really want to understand the frequency of searches for "debt help".

Note that these results are specific to Australia...

"debt help" vs "sausages"

"debt help" vs "yoko ono"

"debt help" vs "toyota landcruiser"

"debt help" vs "zombie"

"debt help" vs "iphone"

Pollyana

And in the true spirit of BE,.........

"debt help" vs lettuce

Amazulu

But less common than 'sex', 'porn' and 'redtube'.

Amazulu

See post #7!

Amazulu

Yes, apparently true according to the perceived wisdom on BE.

DeadVim

But considerably more common than 'lettuce porn'.

Amazulu

A search particular to BE users.

pomtastic

I'll email Google spokeswoman Kate Mason and tell her she is talking rubbish and that she can't do her job properly and that how dare she try and ruin everyone's dream.

On another note, an enormous amount of data and stats to back up the fact the Aussies are in fact over their heads in debt. Google it!!

ABCDiamond

I like lettuce threads



But, back to Google.....

Shepherds Pie comes in at position 8 in the most common Food and Drink searches from Australia

The official Google list of top searches on google.com.au: http://google-au.blogspot.com/2010/1...op-google.html

and the UK top searches at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...s-of-2010.html

ABCDiamond

Googled...

Household Debt

National average mortgage in Australia - $283,000 (i)
Monthly repayments on average mortgage - $2,062 (ii)
Average credit card debt - $3,244 (iii)
Full-time earnings (seasonally adjusted wages) - $64,594 (iv)

http://riskinfo.com.au/news/2010/07/...urance-burden/

Vash the Stampede

...by people on British Expats.