Google Knows It When People Search For It

So, the New York Time reports that in order to prove what the “community standards” are regarding obscenity in Pensacola, FL, a lawyer representing a porn website operator offered as evidence the fact that Google Trends shows that residents in the area search the web for “orgy” more than they do for “apple pie.” And “what could be more American than apple pie,” he asks.

Naturally the prosecutor questions whether the search trends are representative of, well, anything really. I agree. Who googles “apple pie”? The reporter does a good job of catching a key point: The Google service does, however, show the relative strength of many mainstream queries in Pensacola: “Nascar,” “surfing” and “Nintendo” all beat “orgy.”

The PR guy in me is proud at the sheer chutzpa of this attorney. It got national attention to his case and morons like me writing about it. And it’s seeking to capitalize on the availability of information. Bravo, sir!

However, the soon-to-be-studying Con Law and Evidence guy in me looks forward to whether this method is effective. I certainly hope the jury sees through it, though I can see how the evidence, on its face, could be an effective tactic of fooling the jury into believing these results are an authoritative picture of the community standard.

The problem is that these results are just a snapshot of a certain group of people that may or may not represent the community and its online habits. Even if it were representative for a certain point in time, it’s unclear how this would establish a “community standard,” assuming that standard is established online and offline.