Maybe next time, or maybe if you relax and have a few drinks first it'll help. Some neighborhoods were so boring, they just weren't worth the down-and-dirty data mining effort. My final categories were (seeking to get and give) blow jobs, cunnilingus, anal sex, immediate hookups, married, well-hung, use of the word "normal," people who were "bored," a biohazard category (for those seeking activity including bodily fluids) and fetish interests (like the nice fellow in Cole Valley who enjoys vinyl inflatables, as evidenced with the lovely 5-foot-tall Godzilla in his photos).
However, for fellatio action, the default was Men Seeking Men in all neighborhoods and cities, with the exception of Berkeley, Palo Alto and Mountain View. So either the gay-anal assumptions for "Sodom by the Bay" were wrong (likely), or the gays prefer to use other online hookup services and local community resources for anonymous anal sex. For instance, the numbers told me that in any given "anal" search, the numbers revealed that Men Seeking Women was the majority default for results, and Men Seeking Men was the lesser variable. With filthy spreadsheet in hand, I developed a set of specific categories based on majority results of what people were looking for (and who was seeking the activity) and added categories as I went along. ( NSFW Google document online here.) I mean, what girl doesn't want to know in which San Francisco neighborhood men think they're the best hung? Or which Bay Area city has the most golden-shower enthusiasts? Using a very unscientific method of stat gathering, while relying on a tried-and-true knowledge of colloquial sex terminology and search-fu skills that cut like a knife, I set about data mining Craigslist Casual Encounters over a seven-day period - and compiled an Excel spreadsheet that would make a Microsoft development team squirm, beg for mercy and then pass out. Even more interesting - for scientific purposes, of course - is looking at how people are using the ads for sex and what they're up to. In a February 2007 analysis, found that the advertisers making the most of the powerhouse's traffic are looking for shoppers in Erotic Services and Casual Encounters (respectively), and taking a beating (of the nonsexual kind) in business supplies for sale and Web design.Ĭrazy sex ads on Craigslist isn't news or a secret, and the Casual Encounters ads are commonly regarded as a reliable source of entertainment and titillation for parties and long days at the cube farm alike. Recently, analysts have been using real-time tracking to observe the comings and goings of Craigslist's high-traffic success, and they are finding (to the surprise of few) that escorts are (ahem) whipping used cars sales by the numbers.