NEW YORK ? Are you searching for love? You might find it in the Philippines.

According to Google Insights for Search (www.google.com/insights/search), the Philippines holds the distinction of having ?searched for love? more than any other country in the world.

Before you pack your bags and book the next trip to the Philippines, consider that Google can take the word out of context. Peru, for instance, qualifies as the most loving country based on the number of times people there searched for ?love? in Spanish, according to a report released by EFE News last March 2009.

This just means it?s possible for other non-speaking countries to search for ?love? computationally, if not literally.

Why do Filipinos search for ?love? in English? Non-Filipinos should note that English is the medium of instruction in Philippine schools and the form of communication in business.

Filipinos are also just as comfortable with the Filipino language as they are with English. And, if not, there is always ?Taglish,? the convenient mixing of the languages.

In searching for ?love,? Filipinos also prefer the English word; the Filipino vernacular may just be too much of a paradox. ?Mahal,? the Filipino word for ?love,? can mean either one of two ironic things: ?Love? or ?pricey.? Or both, if you are that jaded. In this case, ?mahal? exacts both an emotional and financial price.

Then there is ?pag-ibig,? another Filipino word for ?love? that may be too formal to use, as it is not typically used in conversations. Interestingly enough, the related search results for ?pag-ibig? churned out ?pag-ibig loan? (love loan), a government-run savings and loan office. How appropriate, don?t you think?

Piqued by this new Google technology, I proceeded with my searches in English, typing ?love? and its permutations ?
someone currently in that fluttering state (?in love?), someone in recoiled agony (?broken heart?), another in the final throes of disillusionment (?out of love?), still bleeding but with the gumption to croak to that Air Supply song.

The result was the same: The Philippines outranked all other countries for three consecutive months monitored.

Google USA could not be reached for comment.

Social pressure

A recent visitor to the Philippines after being away for more than six years, Menchie Serrano, a 40-something divorced Filipina based in New Jersey, says some things never change.

While some of her single friends in the Philippines don?t feel the need to get married, society persists in insisting they should.

?In the States, I don?t feel the pressure, unlike my female friends in the Philippines, some of whom admit to lowering their standards just to relieve themselves of the pressure of being single,? she observes from her recent visit.

Maya Calica, a Filipino author of two popular published chick literature novels in Asia, ?The Breakup Diaries? and ?Undercover Taitai,? admits society still thinks a single man or woman is ?strange.?

The fear of being stigmatized for being alone is further magnified on special occasions like Valentine?s Day.

?I know people who always make sure they have someone special by Valentine?s Day, if not on Christmas Day. These same people refuse to be seen eating alone in a restaurant, or think that traveling solo is mad,? she adds.

Case in point: A total of 6,124 couples who did not want to be alone showed their strength in numbers on Valentine?s Day in 2007. This was when the Philippines held the record for the most number of people simultaneously kissing on Valentine?s Day, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. An earlier record was set in 2004.

Beyond the romantic pursuit of love, though, Filipinos are generally warm people and are endearing recipients of affection from friends, family and, as is usually common in the Philippines, from a wise, respected elder. Corazon ?Cory? Aquino, the recently departed global icon of democracy, was affectionately called Tita or Aunt Cory.

Emotional songs

But if the Google Insights results are any indication, the results may need a little more probing. Is it really what Filipinos are craving for? When I typed ?the Philippines? in the Insights search, ?lyrics? topped the results (from the entire month of May up to press time).

Not really surprising, says Calica. ?Filipinos are very emotional, which is why the emotion in our love songs [and] our movies is very superlative.?

The Peruvian news agency reported a similar, interesting result. A total of 325 million searches for ?life? and 45 million for ?death? were attributed to Coldplay?s then-newly released album ?Viva la Vida.? All searches in Peru were in Spanish.

So can we call off the search for ?love? now and simply ascribe it to searches for songs? Not yet.

Both Philippine searches for ?love? and ?lyrics? topped Insights? charts because they may have symbiotic significance. Stretching this analogy, doesn?t listening to music give birth to love, and vice versa? Isn?t love both misery and happiness?

Revved up by all this, I typed both ?misery? and ?happiness? in the Insights search. The result: The Philippines outranked all other countries again. But in terms of happiness, the Philippines came in a respectable third.

The misery is everywhere, unfortunately. United Nations figures indicate over 40 percent of the country?s population subsist on about $2 a day. Visitors say they can actually see crippling poverty everywhere (read: shanties) even before their plane lands.

Happy nation

So why are Filipinos happy? According to nationmaster.com, the Philippines is the fourth happiest country in a survey of 50 countries. Nationmaster.com claims to have ?data from such sources as the CIA World Factbook, the United Nations and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development.?

With so much love and happiness to spread around, would that be enticing enough for people to visit the country and for the Philippine government to run a tourism ad campaign that espouses its general warmth and hospitality?

?The Philippines loves you like no other country. Book a trip now.? Or something less cheesy than that line.

With the Philippines outranking every other country in my Insights search, is there some relevant word that failed to give us a lift in the top 10? If your mind is as dirty as mine and you?re thinking Al Green, well, it turns out ?sex? is not a word that matters to most Filipinos.

So can we take Google Insights seriously?

From the looks of it, these new Google search tools, if they take off, can change what we think of words ? and worlds. Imagine a word taking on metaphysical significance, linked to a country?s obsessions, even identity.

Would it make me write differently as a writer, advertising copywriter, screenwriter or, yes, as a Filipino? Hollywood may just base its next disaster movie on, well, love.

Now, if only this love were meant for love for country. But that?s another story.

The author can be reached at dennisclemente@gmail.com.