How your computer keyboard is five times dirtier than your toilet seat

It's a cute headline, but the toilet seat is a weird, but common, target for cleanliness comparisons. The Daily Mail have done this before by stating the average kitchen worktop is no cleaner than a toilet seat:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.htm...

The fact is, toilet seats are cleaned regularly (at least every few weeks even in the most shoddy of households, I'd hope - but usually at least once a week) whereas keyboards are not. Most people's buttocks don't harbor germs either. It's not as if people defecate on the seat or rub their anus directly on it, whereas sweaty, dirty fingers can infect a keyboard in no time.

The toilet seat, therefore, is a weird comparison. At least compare the keyboard to a bath sponge, a washing up cloth, or something similar that's almost certainly going to harbor germs.

The reason why keyboards are dirty is because they are difficult and time consuming to clean properly. All of those little cracks are hard to reach. And the special ones that are (like the silicone keyboards) are a pain to use.