There’s a theory that postulates you can learn a lot about a person from what he/she searches for online (though I think people in the sciences would quibble over the use of the word theory there.) A blog from real estate site estately.com extends that theory to learning about states from residents’ Google searches. Estately’s 2015 list says Idaho Googled the word “Vaccines” more than any other state.
There is some logic there. Idaho had the highest rate of families choosing to opt out of getting their children vaccinated in the 2014-2015 school year according to the CDC. Though a few states had a smaller percentage of children actually getting vaccinated than in Idaho.
There were a couple of other issues Idahoans were more interested in than people in other states. Idaho searched a lot for “Refugees” and “Gun control.”
But we weren’t all about serious issues. Idahoans did more searches on the movie The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 than people in other states. And maybe we needed some extra tech support because the Windows 10 operating system was one of Idaho’s top searches as well.
Though perhaps we should cultivate a smug sense of superiority over the seriousness of our Google searches. Neighbor Washington apparently spent a lot of time searching for “Leonard Nimoy,” “Super Bowl” and “Left Shark.” While Wyoming was very interested in “Blake Shelton + Gwen Stefani.” Nevada has an impressive list of entertainers and athletes it searched for more than other states including basketball player “Lamar Odom,” whose name - according to Google - was the top search term of the year.
Idaho’s other neighbors also had some serious things on their minds. In Montana they searched for “Wolves.” Oregon was interested in geography, searching for “Iran,” Syria” and “Ukraine” more than other states. And Utah’s top search was the word “Transgender.” Though Utahans were also interested in “Man bun.”
Find Adam Cotterell on Twitter @cotterelladam
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