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Home / World

'Why are the British so ugly?' The questions Europeans ask Google about the UK revealed

Daily Mail
4 Oct, 2016 08:23 AM2 mins to read

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Europeans have googled many questions about British people. Photo / Getty Images

Europeans have googled many questions about British people. Photo / Getty Images

Britain is a nation of many mysteries, according to the Europeans who Google it.

"Why are the British so ugly?" the Netherlands demands to know and "why do the English put milk in their tea?" inquires Hungary.

Indeed, data from Google over the past year reveals the common searches made about the UK from users elsewhere in Europe - and the questions that surfaced aren't entirely flattering, Daily Mail reports.

Germans have often typed the question 'why are the British so stupid?' into the iconic search engine, according to the data revealed by Search Laboratory.

Italians ask why Brits are "dirty", Portuguese searchers home in on England and ask why English people are "crybabies", while Spanish users don't even dignify their views with a question, simply typing "the English are strange".

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Polish searchers are apparently confounded by our baking ingredients, demanding to know "why is British flour so strange?" and Austria should probably hang its head in shame for the question "is England a country or a city?"

Other searches were somewhat more reasonable.

The Danish have been asking why English judges wear wigs, the Finnish want to know why the Olympics refer to the UK as "Britain", while Lithuanians ponder as to why British people drive on the left side of the road.

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Last week, separate data was released about the most common searches made about all the countries around Europe.

According to Google's autocomplete function, which uses algorithms to suggest search terms based on what you've already started typing, plenty of people write "Wales is better than England" in the search box.

Tellingingly, the most popular statement about England was found to be, "England is confusing".

It's tricky to test this for yourself, since the search engine will already be deeply personalised to you based on your browsing history.

But it's amusing, if true, that so many people have typed "Scotland is not a real country" and "Ukraine is not a brothel" into Google.

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