5 ms·

What Cost Is Each State Obsessed With

40 points by bennettfeely 10y ago

mikeatlas 10y ago
Vermont is so quaint.
Tobani 10y ago
I think the methodology here is off. It may not be that People in Florida and Alabama are looking for abortion prices. It could be people in Georgia price shopping neighboring states, then looking for taxis to get across the border.
- andrenotgiant 10y ago
  Right - best example of that is "How much does a fishing license cost in Montana". People outside Montana are probably going to drown out people inside Montana. There aren't that many people in Montana
nxc18 10y ago
I would look at Google trends rather than autocomplete. Their autocomplete tries to be smart and doesn't reflect actual search traffic. See: Why won't my parakeet eat my diarrhea.
glitch13 10y ago
Looks like it only returns words that begin with consonants because of the "a". If you search for "how much does an * cost in" You get different results that begin with vowels as well as acronyms/abbreviations.
andrewclunn 10y ago
"The T" ??? What's Massachusetts going on about?
- koenigdavidmj 10y ago
  Boston subway system.
- nommm-nommm 10y ago
  The more commonly used name for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Bay_Transportation_Authority https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Bay_Transportati...
philipalexander 10y ago
Kentucky and Florida should make some sort of deal.
mywittyname 10y ago
I love NY and Vermont. Pound of Weed ----> Cord of Wood
camiller 10y ago
I posted this as a comment on the article, but I'll share here as well... This is kind of funny, but the methodology is suspect. For example, Lincoln Nebraska is a college dominated city so the result is no surprise, Omaha Nebraska has a much larger population and not really skewed so much toward a single demographic. When I run your search for Omaha the top result was drivers license. However we all know that your personal search history can affect results and I had been researching voter ID laws. When I try the search in a new incognito window... I get no results whatsoever! So, unfortunately, I'm going to have to firmly place this in the humor category.
stonogo 10y ago
This is a horrible metric; tons of these are clearly people googling about things somewhere other than where they live (c.f. Alaska, "gallon of milk").
- mikestew 10y ago
  Other comments allude to it, but this one should be at the top as it gives a good example as to why the methodology is suspect: pretty sure people in AK know what a gallon of milk costs in Delta Junction. I, a WA resident, would have to look it up. There are other, similar examples of course. Price of weed in CO? Yeah, maybe residents are looking, but I'm more inclined to think the girl in Detroit is wondering, "I'm paying $250/quarter for pot, I wonder how much it costs in states where it's legal?" If I want to know how much weed costs in WA (where it is also legal), I pull up the website of my local store, not ask Google.
sgnelson 10y ago
As others have already stated, there are some problems with this "study." I'm too lazy to do this myself, but my guess is that when you actually redo this auto-complete search, and look at not just the top search, but rather the top 5 searches, you will find a lot of overlap in many of the state searches, which will probably show less state variation (with some exceptions of course, and possibly more regional homogeneity, which would be interesting.)
goda90 10y ago
Funny when you've contributed to your state's thing at least twice. I wonder whether it's the humid heat, or the need to chill lots of beer and cheese that makes Wisconsin obsessed with electricity.
dimino 10y ago
This study has ruined is ability to be reproduced, as whenever you attempt any of the searches, you get the study and many articles about the study, in the results, which reinforces the findings of the study. It's a self-reinforcing study! The more you test it, the stronger its validity becomes!
dsjoerg 10y ago
Add 2015 to the title please.
cosrnos 10y ago
I'm not at all surprised to see what my hometown of Bismarck, ND is obsessed with.
- duaneb 10y ago
  Does "a minor" have a different meaning, or is there a thriving underage slavery ring there? I suppose it could also be "a minor ticket" or "A Minor" (the scale).
  - labster 10y ago
    It costs a lot to import those Aeolian modes all the way from Greece to North Dakota.
cowardlydragon 10y ago
"Succession" in Louisiana I don't care if the methodology is suspect, I WANT TO BELIEVE...
- nickthemagicman 10y ago
  It either means inheriting an estate (LA has a very unique legal system) or it means "LA IS LEAVING THE US!!" And the United states gross income per capita and IQ went up by 100%.
MBlume 10y ago
This doesn't show California as obsessed with the price of housing, so I have to assume the methodology is flawed in some way.

40 points by bennettfeely 10y ago

Vermont is so quaint.

I think the methodology here is off. It may not be that People in Florida and Alabama are looking for abortion prices. It could be people in Georgia price shopping neighboring states, then looking for taxis to get across the border.

andrenotgiant 10y ago
Right - best example of that is "How much does a fishing license cost in Montana". People outside Montana are probably going to drown out people inside Montana. There aren't that many people in Montana

nxc18 10y ago

I would look at Google trends rather than autocomplete. Their autocomplete tries to be smart and doesn't reflect actual search traffic. See: Why won't my parakeet eat my diarrhea.

glitch13 10y ago

Looks like it only returns words that begin with consonants because of the "a". If you search for "how much does an * cost in" You get different results that begin with vowels as well as acronyms/abbreviations.

andrewclunn 10y ago

"The T" ??? What's Massachusetts going on about?

koenigdavidmj 10y ago
Boston subway system.
nommm-nommm 10y ago
The more commonly used name for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Bay_Transportation_Authority https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Bay_Transportati...

philipalexander 10y ago

Kentucky and Florida should make some sort of deal.

mywittyname 10y ago

I love NY and Vermont. Pound of Weed ----> Cord of Wood

camiller 10y ago

I posted this as a comment on the article, but I'll share here as well... This is kind of funny, but the methodology is suspect. For example, Lincoln Nebraska is a college dominated city so the result is no surprise, Omaha Nebraska has a much larger population and not really skewed so much toward a single demographic. When I run your search for Omaha the top result was drivers license. However we all know that your personal search history can affect results and I had been researching voter ID laws. When I try the search in a new incognito window... I get no results whatsoever! So, unfortunately, I'm going to have to firmly place this in the humor category.

stonogo 10y ago

This is a horrible metric; tons of these are clearly people googling about things somewhere other than where they live (c.f. Alaska, "gallon of milk").

mikestew 10y ago
Other comments allude to it, but this one should be at the top as it gives a good example as to why the methodology is suspect: pretty sure people in AK know what a gallon of milk costs in Delta Junction. I, a WA resident, would have to look it up. There are other, similar examples of course. Price of weed in CO? Yeah, maybe residents are looking, but I'm more inclined to think the girl in Detroit is wondering, "I'm paying $250/quarter for pot, I wonder how much it costs in states where it's legal?" If I want to know how much weed costs in WA (where it is also legal), I pull up the website of my local store, not ask Google.

sgnelson 10y ago

As others have already stated, there are some problems with this "study." I'm too lazy to do this myself, but my guess is that when you actually redo this auto-complete search, and look at not just the top search, but rather the top 5 searches, you will find a lot of overlap in many of the state searches, which will probably show less state variation (with some exceptions of course, and possibly more regional homogeneity, which would be interesting.)

goda90 10y ago

Funny when you've contributed to your state's thing at least twice. I wonder whether it's the humid heat, or the need to chill lots of beer and cheese that makes Wisconsin obsessed with electricity.

dimino 10y ago

This study has ruined is ability to be reproduced, as whenever you attempt any of the searches, you get the study and many articles about the study, in the results, which reinforces the findings of the study. It's a self-reinforcing study! The more you test it, the stronger its validity becomes!

dsjoerg 10y ago

Add 2015 to the title please.

cosrnos 10y ago

I'm not at all surprised to see what my hometown of Bismarck, ND is obsessed with.

duaneb 10y ago
Does "a minor" have a different meaning, or is there a thriving underage slavery ring there? I suppose it could also be "a minor ticket" or "A Minor" (the scale).
- labster 10y ago
  It costs a lot to import those Aeolian modes all the way from Greece to North Dakota.

cowardlydragon 10y ago

"Succession" in Louisiana I don't care if the methodology is suspect, I WANT TO BELIEVE...

nickthemagicman 10y ago
It either means inheriting an estate (LA has a very unique legal system) or it means "LA IS LEAVING THE US!!" And the United states gross income per capita and IQ went up by 100%.

MBlume 10y ago

This doesn't show California as obsessed with the price of housing, so I have to assume the methodology is flawed in some way.