At Least Google Listens

I was looking at the CoolTools4Men site and came across this link to an article entitled, "Men talk to Google not girlfriends." CoolTools pointed out that the article was a bit biased against men: "a silly piece, written in a misandric style, but it underlies the trend towards men spending more time interacting with their computers than with women." The article is a little dated, having been written in 2004, yet, it does bring up the interesting point that men seem to turn more to their computer for advice more than their girlfriends:

Men talk to their search engines more than their girlfriends, work colleagues or even their families, research has claimed.

A poll conducted by MSN Search found that search engines are the first port of call for nearly half of men seeking advice. Family are consulted by a third, while partners are the sounding board of choice for only one in four men.

In comparison, the study into gender search patterns reveals that women still opt for more traditional advice options, with one in three rating family as their number one choice for help and information.

Naturally, the article has to have the added twist of dissing men for turning to a search engine rather than a partner:

Male search vanity apparently knows no bounds. Almost a third of men admit to searching for themselves online and awarding themselves an average 80 per cent satisfaction rating for their general searching abilities. By contrast, just over one in five women have searched for their own name.

One in 12 men admitted to looking up ex-partners to uncover what they've been up to since splitting up, compared to just four per cent of women.

A typical male search query uses just two words, compared with three for women. Women are also more patient about investigating different potential routes.

There must be some good reason that men turn to the internet rather than to their girlfriends to get advice. Perhaps Google has the added advantage of actually providing some real advice and listening to a guy's problems without interruption and personal interpretation. Maybe when you balk at being talked at instead of being listened to, the internet provides a good place to go:

MSN Search marketing manager Clare Bolton said: "Search services have become so central to our lives that in many cases they're being treated like trusted friends.

"Men in particular seem to be turning to them like a mate in the pub to give advice, provide entertainment and even help out in rating potential girlfriends."

If men trust Google more than their girlfriend, what does that say about the way they perceive women's listening skills? Perhaps women who complain that their guy spends more time on the computer than he does with them should read Warren Farrell's Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say: Destroying Myths, Creating Love. It couldn't hurt and it might teach a girlfriend the listening skills she needs to see her guy's Google searches for advice become a thing of the past, or at least recede into the background.