PornHub, which is the pre-eminent YouTube-like site for watching free porn online, has gone diving into its own traffic data to produce some truly fascinating information about how global porn viewing habits are affected by major world events like holidays, major TV viewing moments, and news events (via Slade Sohmer and Digg).

At first blush, this kind of thing seems jokey and funny, but in reality, it's a clever way of gauging the significance of various events in various parts of the world.

So for example, you have this chart showing that on Rosh Hashonah, porn viewing plunges 42%.

That makes sense.

And what makes even more sense is that on the more holy Yom Kippur (the day of atonement), porn viewing falls even more.

The maps also do a good job of showing regional differences.

For example, this map nicely shows who cared about the closing ceremonies of the Olympics last year (hint: People in the UK cared. Others didn't).

Basically everyone in the world watches less porn on Christmas... except Japan.

PornHub

Meanwhile, here's proof that "Earth Day" is a holiday that people do not care about whatsoever.

PornHub

The maps also tell us something interesting about technology. On iPhone release dates, traffic declines. Maybe because people are temporarily distracted by something shiny and new?

But it's the opposite on iPad release days. We know which device people want to look at porn on.

Sporting events can cause big drops in porn viewing, especially in the cities where the teams are based.

But it can be complicated. During the Euro 2012 (soccer) final, porn viewing collapsed in Spain and Italy (where the teams were from) but viewing surged everywhere else.

In theory, other high-traffic sites could come up with similar data showing the effect of world major events, but online porn is unique in that it's a global, a mass product, and not news or social.