The American economy is screwed.  Never mind housing, inflation, or whatever other problems come to mind; a new issue has arisen, and it’s that users of Google China seem more interested in terms like "bank" and "stock" than "sex."

Maybe, just maybe, they’ll get so distracted with instant messaging each other that they’ll forget about outdoing the rest of the world – in 2007, the term "QQ" was actually most popular, and Wang Shanshan reports that it is "a Chinese instant message service and also an automobile brand."

Still, China’s population is larger than America’s by about a billion people, so such a large-scale loss of motivation seems unlikely.

One other possibility is that users of Google China have learned the limits of its search – government censors have probably cracked down on many sex-related results.  Also, searches are never guaranteed to reflect a person’s true interests.  It looks like the Chinese are fairly well focused on making and saving money, though.

Good for them.  As for the American economy . . . eep.