Local search engine Ananzi says the Big Brother television show has for the second month beat the word "sex" as its most popular search term.
Sex and related words surfers use while looking for pornography are traditionally by far the most popular search terms typed into search engines the world over. However, Ananzi says SA`s fascination with Big Brother is taking that term and variations of it right to the top of its most searched for words.
"Who says TV doesn`t have an effect on our collective libidos?" jokes Ananzi business unit manager Mark Buwalda.
The September attacks on New York and the Pentagon have apparently changed South African search habits, but to a lesser extent.
In September, "Nostradamus" was the eighth most searched for word on Ananzi, following an Internet rumour that the soothsayer had predicted the collapse of the World Trade Centre towers in New York. But despite intense interest in current events over that period, "news" ranked only at number 15 and "CNN" came in at number 20.
American surfing habits have been more severely affected by events in New York. According to search engine Google, all but one of its top 10 gaining queries in September were related to the attacks, with the terms Nostradamus, CNN, World Trade Centre, Osama Bin Laden, Taliban and Afghanistan all ranking before references to the Nimda virus.
During the first week of October, Google saw a change in focus, with anthrax being its top gaining query, followed by online searches for information on Swissair as the company went bankrupt. At the same time, the top declining query was "gas masks" as general fears turned into specific ones.
However, the October gaining results also showed a relative return to normality, with only three of the top gaining queries related to the 11 September events.
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