How we search for bow wows and meows

It’s not quite caturday, and we’re a few months away from the dog days of summer, but searches for pets never paws. Around the world, people constantly ask Google questions about their furry friends, so there’s no time like the present for a good old fashioned (OMG-look-at-that-little) face-off.

Data visualization designer Nadieh Bremer, lover of canines and felines alike, worked with our News Lab team to capture all your cat-like curiosity about why your purr-fect pals (or barky buds) act the way they do using Google Trends data. Today we’re sharing a delightful new site that digs into those questions, and even throws us a bone and answers a few.

Quirky Questions

Why do cats like boxes? Why are they afraid of cucumbers? (Scaredy cats!) Why do they like to knead soft surfaces? You asked (literally), and we (attempt to) answer. Visit the site to explore these questions, and more!

Why do dogs...

• Lick

• Eat grass

• Eat poop

• Howl

• Hump

• Smell

• Bark

• Shake

• Scratch

• Bite

Why do cats...

• Purr

• Knead

• Lick

• Meow

• Bite

• Rub

• Scratch

• Eat grass

• Sleep so much

• Like boxes

Global Pet Preferences

We may not all definitively be a cat or dog “person,” but when it comes to searches, every country leans one way or another. Dive in and doggie-paddle around in nation-by-nation data.

If the site didn’t quite satiate your need for pet knowledge, I’ll leave you with my own assessment that answers some of the most iconic cat and dog questions of all time:

Do cats really rule? Inconclusive. Do dogs really drool? I’ve seen some evidence.