* From Gizmodo…

What happens if you let the notoriously fickle (and sometimes downright dirty) Google search autocomplete feature take over U.S. geography? A completely new State of the Union heavy on universities, history and other peculiarities, that’s what.

Some of the new states are rather obvious, but still provide an interesting look into what Google’s search field algorithms and people’s previous queries “think” you’re actually searching for.

KFC? No brainer. Nebraska football? From what I’ve seen from old college friends who hailed from there, completely obvious choice. Utah Jazz? Hmm. I suppose when it’s the only notable professional sports team going it’s not much of a surprise. Louisiana Purchase? Not what I would have guessed, but Jefferson would surely be proud.

Others are somewhat troubling. What’s going on in Illinois that so many citizens are searching for the lottery?

The map…

When I use Google’s Autocomplete, I get “State Fair” as the number one item. It could be a geographical thing, or Google knows how much I love the State Fair. Whatever.

* The Question: What, in your opinion, should be the first Google Autocomplete item for Illinois?

Snark heavily encouraged, of course.

       

26 Comments - OneMan - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 2:14 pm: Oprah Default - The End Is Near - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 2:18 pm: The first item should be the always-jumping “Six Flags Over Roland Burris’s Mausoleum Theme Park.” - Interested Observer - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 2:27 pm: Convicted Governor’s - chimack - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 2:32 pm: Corruption and soybeans. - gathersno - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 2:33 pm: The fix is in. - Living in Oklahoma - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 2:35 pm: Illinois Smellinois. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 2:37 pm: “Illinois ….” Corruption Handbook balanced budget requirement joke Govenor Mansion empty statehouse FBI hotline GOP losing streak take leave cannoli Interstate 80 border springfield not downstate - Just a Reader - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 2:42 pm: Google knows your search history. When I enter “Illinois”, auto-complete offers up “Illinois state equalizer”. I was searching for that last month. “Illinois lottery” is after that. Forget “Mile after beautiful mile.” Time for the tourism board to use our strenghs: “Come play the Illinois lottery. 2nd night stay free.” - KGB - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 2:44 pm: Illinois how much you offering Illinois what’s it to ya Illinois you can run for office no experience necessary - KGB - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 2:44 pm: Illinois Land of Daley - Lefty - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 2:46 pm: I actually checked it out and “Illinois Lottery” is the first choice when “Illinois” is typed into Google search. When you you think about it, life in Illinois is becoming more and more like playing the lottery every day. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 2:51 pm: “Illinois….” Chicago Alderman offices Oxford Wiconsin Two Party Myth Kass combine wishes fantasies Terrence Goggin John Patrick Ryan real Brady Hendon summit size height of curtains Governor office jobs missing s silent butter cow facebook fan page bureau of prisions politicians - Oswego Willy - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 3:06 pm: “Illinois….” Madigan Road Runner Cross Coyote Pat Quinn 9 lives conflict interests top exuses pay to play menu chart - Irish - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 3:06 pm: The Federal Prison in Wisconsin where all our Governor’s retire. - Peter - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 3:10 pm: “Loyalty” - Ahoy - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 3:10 pm: How to look good in an orange jumpsuit. - UISer - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 3:17 pm: I got State Fair too, I think is geographical. - amalia - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 3:19 pm: in the spirit of the motto for Chicago, ubi es mea, the Illinois phrase should be, caveat incola…..resident beware. - Pot calling kettle - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 3:21 pm: It should be left blank, because the state is too in debt to be able to afford to complete anything. BTW: When I typed in Capitol, it completed with Fax! - Oswego Willy - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 3:24 pm: “Illinois ….” value bleeping golden not giving away Roland Burris real not act reality star governor sad Blagojevich drinking spelling game - wordslinger - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 3:48 pm: Such cynics. Kind of a word association game. With a 60-second timer I say, “lllinois… corn deficit politics budget history Lincoln sites Reagan sites basketball Civil War capitol historic sites beans football rivers business taxes universities state parks economy trade With the snark on, again with a 60-second timer, I get “Illinois” corruption politics hustlers gangsters embarrassment - Thoughts... - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 4:11 pm: I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure Google is evil. That autocomplete thingy has to use something that knows where you are - the other night, I typed in GI - and the at least seven of the ten drop downs were for Chicago restaurants. And no, I don’t use gmail. And then, last night good ol’ Comcast shuts down, but turns out there’s a workaround using the Google openDNS port. I looked around and saw the same thing happened, at almost the same time, last week on the east coast. And everyone then was suggesting the google workaround as well. Now, if everyone switched their DNS settings to the google server, got it working, but then forgot to switch it back (or just didn’t care), google would have a whole new wealth of information running through their servers. Coincidence? Or was the directing to google after the Comcast “outage” intentional? Or was the outage created by Google somehow? Yeah, I know, conspiracy theories…but still… - Commonsense in Illinois - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 4:17 pm: This has to be it…Ubi Est Mea? - Wensicia - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 4:56 pm: It has to be Wrigley Field. I would say Madiganistan, but Kass has trademarked this expression. - Concerned Voter - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 6:27 pm: a suburb of Chicago - dave - Monday, Dec 6, 10 @ 8:32 pm: I think a lot of people are confused about what Google autocomplete is. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.