I chanced upon an interesting article.
“In the middle of June, goo Ranking surveyed its readers by means of a public internet questionnaire on what emoticons, or smilies, they often used in mail from their personal computers. The following table presents the top thirty results.
“What 顔文字 (kaomoji) or emoticons do you often use in mail sent from your personal computer?”
Rank Emoticon Score Emotion 1 （＾_＾） or （＾_＾）v, etc 100 Laughing 2 (>_<)> 66.4 Troubled 3 (^_^;) 54.4 Troubled 4 (ToT) 53.3 Crying 5 m(_ _)m 52.9 Apologising 6 (^^ゞ or (^^;) 38.3 Shy 7 （￣ー￣） 20.6 Grinning 8 (≧∇≦)/ 18.9 Joyful 9 （￣□￣；） 18.9 Surprised 10 (#^.^#) 18.8 Shy 11 （*´▽｀*） 16.1 Infatuation 12 (ーー;) 15.4 Worried 13 (*^▽^*) 15.0 Joyful 14 ＿|￣|○, orz, OTL, etc 13.7 Depressed 15 (＾▽＾) 11.1 Laughing 16 キタ━━━(゜∀゜)━━━!!!!!, (゜∀゜), etc 11.1 I think it is “I’m here!!!”, but I just don’t really know! 17 (´･ω･`) 10.3 Snubbed 18 （ ﾟ Дﾟ） 8.8 Shocked 19 （・∀・） 7.7 Laughing 20 (Ｔ▽Ｔ) 7.1 Crying 21 (*￣m￣) 6.8 Dissatisfied 22 （ ´∀｀） 6.0 Laughing 23 （⌒▽⌒） 5.3 Laughing 24 （＾ｖ＾） 4.9 Laughing 25 ヽ（´ー｀）┌ 4.7 Mellow 26 （’-’*) 4.1 Laughing 27 (’A`) 3.8 Snubbed 28 （゜◇゜） 2.1 Surprised 29 (*°∀°)=3 2.1 Infatuation 30 ∩( ・ω・)∩, ( ・ω・), etc 1.3 Joyful
The site offers a lot more interesting surveys. Check out “30 best-looking politicians“, “How to spot an otaku” and “Japan’s top 10 strangest qualifications“.
Interesting picture: The CIA’s map of Iraq.
