BECAUSE YOU'VE surely been wondering, you can now find out that Brisbane, Australia, is the city that most often googles the word "bestiality," and Toronto and New York are in a deadlock for searching the phrase "outside the box" (pity them both). You can also learn, for instance, that interest in Labradoodles spiked in 2004, and Fendi handbags hit their peak late last year.

As David Leonhardt pointed out in a (much-googled) New York Times column this week, the whole phenomenon captures what technology writer John Battelle has called "the database of intentions." By learning what interests people, and by charting how that interest changes over time, we can, Leonhardt suggests, "predict the future" with "a digital crystal ball."

Well, sort of. Google Trends, still in its infancy, doesn't supply hard numbers, tends to be slightly out of date and doesn't yet provide top 40-style lists of the most popular searches. For that you have to go to Google Zeitgeist, which, according to its description, "provides a cumulative snapshot of interesting queries people are asking." The most popular query for this week, for example, was "Star Jones," followed by "Tour de France," "Wimbledon" and "Brandon Routh" (the star of "Superman 3"). Incidentally, "Korean missile" turned up a scant 645,000 hits and "Mexican presidential election" a Nader-like 206,000. Apparently, we know our priorities.

This is all great fun, but is this "database of intentions" really going to tell us something new about ourselves? It seems to me that so far the digital crystal ball has mostly helped us with our shopping.

Unlike a conventional crystal ball, which might (at least in the proper hands) tell me all sorts of warm fuzzy things about myself — such as "You live life to its fullest" and "You will soon meet an exotic stranger who will open up new possibilities" — the digital crystal ball suggests that I'm likely to shop online for marked-down sandals.

And if that's not soul-affirming enough, the banner ads that pop up on my screen indicate a keen interest in lap pools, veterinary insurance, herbal supplements and bathroom fixtures. As for my taste in books and music, don't believe a word I say about reading Jane Austen or listening to jazz. My recent Amazon.com recommendations have included Abba's "Super Trouper" CD and a book about drywalling.