Today’s column from CBS Chicago …
(CBS) — Curious about the way that people in different parts of the country stereotype one another, venture capitalist and blogger Renee DiResta recently conducted an informal survey using Google’s quirky autocomplete function.
State by state, DiResta started typing, “Why is [state] so,” into her Google search bar, and let the engine’s algorithm guess the rest of the question. For example, when DiResta typed, “Why is Illinois so,” Google wondered if she was going to ask, “Why is Illinois so corrupt?”
For West Virginia, the top result was “poor.” Indiana and Maine produced “boring.” Georgia was “hot,” “racist” and boring.” And Oregon, “liberal,” “weird,” “rainy” and, again, “boring. Ohio, meanwhile, was also “boring,” but “important in the primaries.”
Not all the results were negative, however, as Colorado generated “healthy” and Delaware “business friendly.”
After reading about DiResta’s little experiment, it got me wondering what Google autocomplete might have to say about Chicago’s sports teams – and some of their rivals. So this week, I conducted my own “Why is” test, and the following are the questsions what Google autocompleted for me.
To continue reading, visit CBSChicago.com …