The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
What How-To Questions Is Your State Googling?
When Google became the dominant search engine and the world’s go-to for everything you ever wanted to know, we willingly gave up our inner-most secrets to Google. While we might be able to keep our identity safe and privacy a secret, we willingly give over the search keywords that we are looking for. There is absolutely no way to prevent this unless you use a search engine that somehow guarantees to not use any information at all, but most usually need use that information, either for advertising purposes, or to know what the trends of the world are. No matter what search engine you use, they have a record of what their visitors are looking for.
The phrases and keywords that are typed into that search engine are recorded and unless you are using a browser that hides your location, you are actually known. Since Google makes you login, it is likely known what you are looking for, and in fact, you can view an entire history of your Google account, which will show everything you have searched for, every website you have visited, every YouTube video you have listened to, etc. Some people are paranoid about this, but many are not. Those who are tend to use alternative search engines such as StartPage, which will display to you all of Google results, but hide everything about you personally. You can also use my personal favorite, DuckDuckGo, which is a search engine that is completely separate of Google, and is known not to track any type of data about you personally.
For the majority that choose to use Google, the data that is tracked about us and what we are looking for is not always a bad thing and can sometimes help us understand what is going on in our world. It can help us understand the latest trends of popular culture or technology, what type of information we are seeking, and even our knowledge about certain things. For example, it was revealed by Google about a year or two ago that there was an increase in searches for How To Write A Check, meaning that most people nowadays are probably not writing checks very often anymore.
Why is such information useful? Companies or bloggers might capitalize in on keywords and trends. It could be useful to design products or write articles geared towards those searches, in which they would likely rank highly because those are the most searched questions and keywords in Google searches. For a higher ranking, their articles and products would likely be more linked to because they appear in top searches, which will bring more visitors and traffic to their websites. While this map does not technically state which age group from which these searches are coming from, it can be assumed the map covers all ages.
It is also an interesting curiosity to understand what is going on in that specific state to make all of the people living there search for that question the most and what priority it has in people’s lives. If the majority of people are searching for it, there must be something in the air that is causing them to feel the need to search for that specific term. If you look at some of the states, it definitely makes sense. For example, Colorado, with the most searched term being, How to grow marijuana?, in a state where marijuana has been legal to grow for the longest time of all the legalized states.
This map shows what the United States is looking for when they search How To.
How-To Questions Each State Googles More Frequently Than Any Other State
Alabama – How to make love? Alaska – How to fish? Arizona – How to join the illuminati? Arkansas – How to get rid of moles? California – How to spot a narcissist? Colorado – How to grow marijuana? Connecticut – How to be pretty? Delaware – How to get away with murder? Florida – How to get out of Florida? Georgia – How to get a divorce? Hawaii – How to be a ninja? Idaho – How to register to vote? Illinois – How to sell Beanie Babies? Indiana – How to Google something? Iowa – How to throw a curve ball? Kansas – How to find Kansas? Kentucky – How to talk dirty? Louisiana – How to pickle eggs? Maine – How to get rid of fruit flies? Maryland – How to tie a Windsor knot? Massachusetts – How to make donuts? Michigan – How to quit drinking Minnesota – How to quilt? Mississippi – How to Twerk? Missouri – How to raise chickens? Montana – How to hard boil eggs? Nebraska – How to be gluten free? Nevada – How to survive a zombie apocolypse? New Hampshire – How to tip cows? New Jersey – How to stop Trump? New Mexico – How to ask a girl out? New York – How to explain mansplaining? North Carolina – How to be awesome? North Dakota – How to get a passport? Ohio – How to make fire? Oklahoma – How to sext? Oregon – How to make floral arrangements? Pennsylvania – How to defeat ISIS? Rhode Island – How to make an igloo? South Carolina – How to get rid of cockroaches? South Dakota – How to make slime? Tennessee – How to get on TV? Texas – How to sell your soul? Utah – How to catch pokemon? Vermont – How to kayak? Virginia – How to propose? Washington – How to survive an earthquake? West Virginia – How to delete Facebook? Wisconsin – How to impeach a governor? Wyoming – How to battle in Pokemon Go?
