Work or play?

OVER the past five years the number of Google searches made in Africa has increased 500%. By mining data from Google, trendspotters hope to find out what interests Africans. Those in Francophone nations, it turns out, are more likely to search for video games. Anglophones are more likely to Google for jobs or pornography. African countries once ruled by Portugal are more interested in themes related to children, such as school subjects and bullying. What any of this says about the legacy of different colonial regimes is no doubt already the subject of a PhD thesis somewhere.