United States of Wonder

What do we Americans wonder about our, or other, states such that we just go ahead and Google it in such numbers as to appear in auto-suggest?

Here is a simple zeitgeist-y app, made my Jinnan Zhang and me (inspired by the Ur example from Dorothy Gambrell) that shows you what people wonder about these states of the Union (and you, DC).

You may or may not be surprised to learn that many of the queries have to do with the state university’s football team…and the status of legalized marijuana. 

I mean, that’s pretty good evidence of our priorities. But the ones that aren’t football (which might turn out to be really seasonal) and pot (probably not seasonal) are more specifically revealing about the prevailing perceptions (fairly or not) we have of our states.

Many of the questions have to do with a state’s political leaning (why is X blue or red), its economic condition (why is X so poor or so rich or so expensive), or its climate (why is X so hot or so cold).

A surprisingly consistent question is if felons in a state can vote. Huh. Another is that of name origins and nicknames. That’s pretty cool.

Anyway, check it out and see if anything jumps out at you.