Microsoft's new demographics tool?

June 28, 2006 1:52 AM

It's official. Microsoft-verified. Mefites are predominantly teenage males. 85% of eBay users are female. Most people who search for Britney Spears are 30 year old females. Real men don't use YouTube and no male would be caught dead using Google. Oh and a million other things you're never going to believe about the web.
posted by zaebiz (65 comments total)

"The statistics on this page are based on undisclosed size of sample data and are for proof of concept only. Actual results may vary."

Ya shot off too soon. Wait 'till the data is loaded there, Tex.
posted by id at 2:08 AM on June 28, 2006

It says girls read Slashdot.
posted by dickasso at 2:11 AM on June 28, 2006

Seems legit. Says the interested demographic is <18 with a proclivity to be male for your mom.
posted by GooseOnTheLoose at 2:12 AM on June 28, 2006

are for proof of concept only

Think we're gonna need a little more proof than this....
posted by zaebiz at 2:24 AM on June 28, 2006 [1 favorite]

Apparently both whitehouse.gov & milfhunter.com (NSFW, people!) are female-oriented...
posted by Pinback at 2:25 AM on June 28, 2006

now 44% of men use google.
posted by b1tr0t at 2:36 AM on June 28, 2006

Looking quickly thru the pages, I didn't see much in the way of clues to where they're getting these numbers. If it's completed transactions, it would explain the knowledge of gender, but suggests an obvious sample bias.

There is this:

D. How does adTracker work?
When an MSN Search user clicks an ad delivered by Microsoft adCenter, a small text file called a cookie is placed on the user’s computer for 30 minutes. Placing this cookie on the user’s computer enables MSN and the advertiser to determine if a visitor clicked an ad delivered by Microsoft adCenter and visited the advertiser’s website within the 30 minute period. The user’s identity remains anonymous, and no personal information is collected or stored by MSN. Ad performance data is only captured to improve the relevance of ads that MSN Search delivers.

This refers to their recently patented cross-site cookie trick (you know, what surfers try to prevent by using the "no 3rd party cookies" option, and browser extensions, etc.)

Also amusing, advertisers, to use the service, have to use: Windows, latest IE; Flash; Acrobat; and have ActiveX turned on and download and run some code. Wow, who's tracking whom.
posted by jam_pony at 2:39 AM on June 28, 2006

For the one site (and query) I have actual demographic survey data for, the MSN guess is spot on, for what it's worth.
posted by mmoncur at 2:48 AM on June 28, 2006

** note to self **

prom = pr0n
posted by isopraxis at 2:58 AM on June 28, 2006

Apparently almost readers of the New Zealand Herald online are female. I find that unlikely.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 3:05 AM on June 28, 2006

Apparently 92% of the readers of www.yahoo.com are female.
posted by rdr at 3:18 AM on June 28, 2006

And 61% of the queries for "Donald Rumsfield" come from women. Condalezza Rice skews 67% female. Sadly for Dick, Dick Cheney splits right down the middle.
posted by rdr at 3:26 AM on June 28, 2006

I am terrified that there is a Microsoft employee quietly standing behind me, taking takes of my internet perusing, guessing my age and then taking all those details back to HQ and reporting them in unbelievably inaccurate fashion.

I mean, how did he get into my house?

That's what they do with TV ratings, right?
posted by Serial Killer Slumber Party at 3:44 AM on June 28, 2006

I typed in my blog address and Microsoft thinks I'm an 18 year old girl. An 18 year old girl. Thanks. A. Fucking. Lot. Steve. Balmer. Developers, developers, developers, developers.
posted by moonbird at 3:54 AM on June 28, 2006 [1 favorite]

Something weird going on there - I'm putting in unused or essentially moribund domain names, and getting meaningful data out.
posted by Leon at 3:55 AM on June 28, 2006 [1 favorite]

Odd, on the third query my blogs stats went from <18 female to 18 to 24 male. Are we growing up so soon? And becoming transgendered?!?!
posted by IronLizard at 3:57 AM on June 28, 2006

Queries about the number 3215 skew 70% male whereas queries about the color turquoise skew 66% female. The number 0 skews 83% male but pi is mercifully only 51% male but 3.141592 skews 65% male. e is exactly 50% male.

Is the point of this web site to make us realize how silly gender is?
posted by rdr at 4:00 AM on June 28, 2006

What's a golden shower ratio? Is it germane?
posted by econous at 4:49 AM on June 28, 2006

Um...it seems to think that most folks who read Maude Newton's literary blog are under 18! Same thing for Bookslut.

That's just plain old ridiculous. 100% dead wrong.
posted by bim at 4:55 AM on June 28, 2006

I gave it the URL file://c/winnt (yeah, im running windows 2000, but it's PROFESSIONAL) and the results were...well, the main thing is, there were results. With numbers and percents and decimal places. Ugh.
posted by hexatron at 4:57 AM on June 28, 2006

I tried out the query for "linux" and it merely responded 99% goat, 1% penguin, 110% OMG DIE YOU GIMPFUCKING COMMIE MUTANT TRAITOR WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA YOU FILTHY HIPPIE.

I'm pretty sure those numbers are fudged a little, if not outright biased.
posted by loquacious at 5:00 AM on June 28, 2006 [1 favorite]

Heh, and the demographic of goatse is 25-34 y/o males. And I found the real problem with the Democrats, the average demo for them is girls under 18.
posted by JJ86 at 5:38 AM on June 28, 2006

LGF is apparently 98% 30-something females. This is clearly extremely accurate.
posted by mek at 5:42 AM on June 28, 2006

Where the fuck is it getting age or gender from?
posted by signal at 5:50 AM on June 28, 2006

Other question, all those gazillion dollars, and they still can't hire 1 friggin' graphic designer?
posted by signal at 6:01 AM on June 28, 2006

Mefites are predominantly teenage males...
That explains alot.
posted by tbonicus at 6:08 AM on June 28, 2006

I was hoping for some kind of funny demographic list, it's too early in the morning for me to come up with my own data.

I tested livejournal, and it said it was predominately females between the ages of 18-35.

I was hoping for some wacky wrong answer, but that sounds pretty accurate to me.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 6:16 AM on June 28, 2006

Sweet Jesus, 85% of the people who visit my site are female?
posted by sciurus at 6:33 AM on June 28, 2006

Wow, 55% of my web page's audience are female. But that's still almost a 50-50 split for intensive purposes. I mean, it's not like I would expect anything else from a website for America's number one religion and spirituality news program on public radio.
posted by parmanparman at 6:40 AM on June 28, 2006

Umm... 95% of the people who visit my site are male. WTF? I thought it might be a little cock-heavy but 95%! That's more than pornsites!
posted by ob at 6:47 AM on June 28, 2006

Although apparently wikipedia's readership is 90% female, which I just don't believe.
posted by ob at 6:49 AM on June 28, 2006

Oscar, my girlfriend is a music teacher and made me sit through your Krank score six months or so ago. Your work is great! Drop me a line.
posted by parmanparman at 6:50 AM on June 28, 2006

Metafilter may be 71% male, but the age plummets on metatalk. And ASK metafilter is only 49% male...
posted by artifarce at 7:01 AM on June 28, 2006

Definitely getting different results than some of you...
posted by artifarce at 7:03 AM on June 28, 2006

I would sure love to see some F values.
posted by dmd at 7:07 AM on June 28, 2006

this data.....is clearly shit. Maybe they're tesing a new random number generator?
posted by cosmicbandito at 7:10 AM on June 28, 2006

If you type in a URL and hit query as opposed to URL you get different results.
posted by ob at 7:17 AM on June 28, 2006

It said the AARP site was female-skewed and over age 50, so it's not completely off...
posted by mikeh at 7:19 AM on June 28, 2006

Where the fuck is it getting age or gender from?

That nifty Microsoft registration screen you got at your first boot-up perhaps? Or any MS service. Doesn't hotmail ask gender and age?

# When you register for certain Microsoft services, we will ask you to provide personal information.
# The information we collect may be combined with information obtained from other Microsoft services and other companies.

posted by skallas at 7:28 AM on June 28, 2006

Seems that some of what MS is doing is bad stats, sort of like basing fixed costs by units in Accounting - you just don't do that. It's bad.

I like my stats coming to me via trends.


Or, something similar is Google Trends...sort of
posted by fluffycreature at 7:31 AM on June 28, 2006

Should I be surprised that Microsoft is skewed towards the 50+?
posted by estelahe at 7:46 AM on June 28, 2006

It works because Macroshaft says it works. Isn't that enough for you doubting Thomas? Jeez!
posted by unwordy at 8:05 AM on June 28, 2006

It said the AARP site was female-skewed and over age 50, so it's not completely off...

Except for the fact that it says only 30 percent are 50+.
posted by tittergrrl at 8:10 AM on June 28, 2006

loquacious - Awesome.
posted by raedyn at 8:32 AM on June 28, 2006

Females account for 64% of "Sugar and spice and everything nice" Males, however, account for only 31% of "Frogs and snails and puppy dogs' tails".

Obviously, this thing's broken.
posted by horsewithnoname at 8:48 AM on June 28, 2006

This thing is 100% broken.
posted by runningdogofcapitalism at 8:52 AM on June 28, 2006

Horsewithnoname, it's "sticks and snails and puppy dog tails." There's your problem.
posted by dame at 9:00 AM on June 28, 2006

"sticks and snails and puppy dog tails": That's still only 37% male. And I believe you have cooties.
posted by horsewithnoname at 9:10 AM on June 28, 2006

I can easily find several conflicting versions of that nursery rhyme. So far, none of the online versions I've found match dame's version, and only one matches horsewithnonames. But that's pretty common with folk songs & nursery rhymes. The most common version referenced online seems to be "snips of snails", meaning "little bits of snails". That's not how I knew it either.
posted by raedyn at 9:14 AM on June 28, 2006

Querying "loquacious" gets me a demographic ratio of 74% female, 26% male, with the peak of the distribution in the 25-34 age range, but with plenty of hot momma chicas in the 18-24 range as well.

To sum it neatly and put it in plain talk: Chicks dig me.

Query: loquacious Gender: Female

Oh, hey, wait. Ack.
posted by loquacious at 9:23 AM on June 28, 2006

Well, of course that's because girls are more interested in boys at that age.

Further, I believe your cooties are far more virulent and intend to get inocculated at once. Stay away from raedyn, though, hers are the literalist kind, and you know what that means.

Actually, raedyn, those links are interesting. Thx.
posted by dame at 9:32 AM on June 28, 2006

I've got your cootie inocculation right here in my cootie innoculator, hot stuff.

*smooches dame Valentino-style, pulls pig tails, runs away*
posted by loquacious at 9:44 AM on June 28, 2006

*chases boys with virulent literalist cooties*
posted by raedyn at 9:53 AM on June 28, 2006

My knees feel so very weak now.
posted by dame at 10:08 AM on June 28, 2006

** note to self **

prom = pr0n

It was so obvious that I had to search responses here first before I mentioned it. And indeed, found I wasn't the only one that saw "prom" and immediately though "porn" but rethought as "pr0n".
posted by smallerdemon at 10:35 AM on June 28, 2006

Tried playboy.com - 58% male, 42% female. I would have expected a more scewed distribution. I don't trust this data.

It really should give estimated error ranges so that one can realize whether it is confident about its results or not.
posted by bhouston at 10:43 AM on June 28, 2006

puretna.com - 93% male. yup.
posted by puke & cry at 11:03 AM on June 28, 2006 [1 favorite]

Now I feel very, very good about making a point to always lie about my age and gender whenever it's collected. I can make a difference!
posted by darksasami at 11:14 AM on June 28, 2006

Okay, http://www.playboy.com as a URL:
Gender: Male Oriented with following Confidence:

Male :0.58
Female :0.42
Age: <18 Oriented

Maybe they're just reporting the dirty, shameful truth.
posted by darksasami at 11:19 AM on June 28, 2006

Google maps 37signals with Flickr iPod
posted by ninjew at 12:41 PM on June 28, 2006

Apparently most of the people using: http://adlab.microsoft.com/DPUI/DPUI.aspx - are female, 82%.
posted by Smedleyman at 1:45 PM on June 28, 2006

http://www.notproud.com/ (a confessing-your-dirty-little-sins-anonymously site):

Female oriented with the following confidence:

Male: 0.09
Female: 0.91
Age: 25-34


You damn right. Bet they're confessing about me.
posted by Wataki at 3:34 PM on June 28, 2006

The females, I mean.


Shit.
posted by Wataki at 3:34 PM on June 28, 2006

Horsewithnoname, it's "sticks and snails and puppy dog tails." There's your problem.

Actually, it's "snips and snails" but who's counting.
posted by tristeza at 4:55 PM on June 28, 2006

URL:http://www.kotex.com

Gender: Male Oriented with following Confidence:

:0.65
:0.35

Age: 25~34
posted by Methylviolet at 8:20 PM on June 29, 2006