What We Ask Google

A NEW SCIENTIST BEST NEW SCIENCE BOOK MAY 2026

'This view from the other side of the search box is both charming and insightful, tapping into a deep well of curiosity.' Tim Harford, author of How to Make the World Add Up

Ever wondered what goes through other people’s minds – our silly questions, inner anxieties, hopes and dreams?

In this hopeful and insightful book, Google Data Editor Simon Rogers explores insights from the world's biggest dataset: an epic snapshot, two decades long and counting, of our collective brain. What it reveals about us might surprise you.

• In June the UK sees a spike in searches for ‘how to help a bee’
• London is the top place on earth searching for 'tell the time drunk'
• Around the world, it’s 2am when parents want to know how to get their baby to sleep
• Searches for 'how to help' are at an all-time high

Brimming with insights that vary from the playful to the profound*, What We Ask Google* delves into the momentous and the mundane secrets of what we ask when we get the chance to ask anything, offering a surprisingly hopeful picture of humankind.

'In a time when the news is so relentlessly gloomy, this book provides a ray of hope.' Daily Mail

'Deserves a place on any bathroom bookshelf' Guardian