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What Do People Google About Your Home State?

February 16th 2016

"Why does Colorado hate California?" "Why does Massachusetts have the best schools?" These are just a few of the most popular questions that people are asking about other states, according to a map made by Mental Floss.

You know that awkward moment when you're typing something into the Google search bar, and Google automatically completes your sentence for you. Using information from Google search autocomplete, Mental Floss created a map that reveals the most popular questions that people have about each state. 

Google autocomplete map of U.S.Chloe Effron/Mental Floss - mentalfloss.com

Some of the questions were not surprising such as "Why does Louisiana speak French?" or "Why does California have the most seats in the House of Representatives?" But others were a bit more interesting. We took a look at two of the least obvious questions.

For instance, "why does Montana hate the the FBI?" And "why does South Dakota have such a low unemployment rate?"

Well the deal with the Montana and the FBI stems back to 2014, when Montana gun lobbyist, Gary Marbut, introduced the "Sheriff First" bill that would "make it a crime for a federal agent to take any law-enforcement steps without first getting permission from the county sheriff."

Marbut believed that the 1993 Waco Texas Massacre could have been prevented had federal agents from the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms gone to the sheriff first, before executing their plans to investigate the illegal possession of firearms and explosives, on a ranch that belonged to a group called Branch Davidians. Ultimately, the matter led to a bloody shootout between officials and the Davidians, in which 76 people died.

And why does South Dakota have low employment? Along with North Dakota, South Dakota is one of the top 10 states with the lowest unemployment. South Dakota's unemployment rate is 2.2 percent, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics. The reason being is the "service sector dominates South Dakota's economy, although government-related enterprises also form a large chunk of the GDP."

[h/t Mental Floss]

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