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Around SBN: Kentucky Football: Tee Martin Reportedly Leaving for USC

FUN WITH GOOGLE TRENDS: BIRMINGHAM=OBSESSED

Google's latest step in becoming the Omega point for all thought and human activity comes in the form of Google Trends, which tracks searches by region, frequency, and time. College football searches by major American metropole:

1. Birmingham
2. Omaha
3. Baton Rouge
4. Oklahoma City
5. Columbus
6. Austin
7. Nashville
8. Tampa
9. Atlanta
10. Houston

College football--the official sport of the 'tweener set? Not only are most of these cities university or university-proximate towns, they represent highly populated regions stuck between big-league sports markets, or at least sit on their fringes. That they serve as the de facto teams for these cities is nothing new; to see it illustrated so dramatically in terms of active interest is fascinating. It also confirms our suspicions that no one, and we mean no one, ever works in Alabama.

Other results of interest:

Top city for searching "sweatervest": Chicago, not Columbus.

Top city for "mustache": Austin (we know we'd like it there.)

Top city for "badonkadonk": Raleigh! Who knew? NORTH CAROLINA...

Top city for "NCAA": Columbus. Don't say you weren't worried, Buckeyes--it's on record now.

Top city for "Herpes": New York.

Your work day is hereby declared over. Go to it.


Big in Raleigh, evidently.

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Comments

Display:

Top City for “jean shorts”: Atlanta

by Pat @ BGS on May 11, 2006 4:58 PM EDT reply actions  

NOT Gainesville. Take that.

by Orson Swindle on May 11, 2006 5:00 PM EDT reply actions  

Tampa, Atlanta and Houston don’t quite fit the ’tweener label. However, they are chock full of Alums from major football loving institutions.

by Stranko Montana on May 11, 2006 5:02 PM EDT reply actions  

Most, Stranko, not all. We’d only really argue whether tampa is a “place” or an “uneasy, hot feeling not unlike being in the car too long after eating a whole calzone.”

by Orson Swindle on May 11, 2006 5:03 PM EDT reply actions  

The results for “sex” are interesting. It makes me wonder why Chicago is so repressed?

1. Delhi India
         
2. Cairo Egypt
         
3. Chennai India
         
4. Ankara Turkey
         
5. Mumbai India
         
6. Istanbul Turkey
         
7. Warsaw Poland
         
8. Chicago United States
         
9. Brussels Belgium
         
10. Zurich Switzerland

by Stranko Montana on May 11, 2006 5:05 PM EDT reply actions  

Top results For mullet
    
1. Tampa United States
   
2. Orlando United States
   
3. Salt Lake City United States
   
4. Brisbane Australia
   
5. Sydney Australia
   
6. Perth Australia
   
7. Chicago United States
   
8. Austin United States
   
9. Seattle United States
   
10. Portland United States

by Stranko Montana on May 11, 2006 5:08 PM EDT reply actions  

Chicago’s up there for evil and suicide, too.

by Orson Swindle on May 11, 2006 5:08 PM EDT reply actions  

Hair gel? New York.

by Orson Swindle on May 11, 2006 5:09 PM EDT reply actions  

One more, and we swear we’ll stop. Adult diaper? Philadelphia.

Those are dedicated sports fans.

by Orson Swindle on May 11, 2006 5:11 PM EDT reply actions  

interesting results:

Bullshit brings up this list:

1. Tampa United States
2. Austin United States
3. New York United States
4. Chicago United States
5. Seattle United States
6. Philadelphia United States
7. St Louis United States
8. San Francisco United States
9. Irvine United States
10. San Diego United States

and searching Crap shows a disproportionate amount of Brits.

by Brian on May 11, 2006 5:11 PM EDT reply actions  

Okay, we lied. Alcholics Anonymous? Austin. That’s two reasons to love Austin.

by Orson Swindle on May 11, 2006 5:12 PM EDT reply actions  

There must be an error if “mullet” has no Canadian locations.

by Tommy Gee on May 11, 2006 5:13 PM EDT reply actions  

searching “bowl championship series” brings up this list:

Birmingham United States
         
2. Austin United States
         
3. Oklahoma City United States
         
4. Columbus United States
         
5. Salt Lake City United States
         
6. Houston United States
         
7. Atlanta United States
         
8. Dallas United States
         
9. Tampa United States
         
10. Chicago United States

notice the lack of LA or Baton Rouge.

by Brian on May 11, 2006 5:14 PM EDT reply actions  

It is just because of their low population. If it went by density of search to population, Canada would dominate

by Stranko Montana on May 11, 2006 5:15 PM EDT reply actions  

Please, someone look up “sex tourism” to see if Germany’s as high up that list as we think it is.

by Orson Swindle on May 11, 2006 5:22 PM EDT reply actions  

How has no one commented on the mesmerizing badonkadonk photo accompanying this entry? Christ, I haven’t even made it to the Google thing yet.

by Phil K. on May 11, 2006 5:25 PM EDT reply actions  

Instead of college football being the official sport of the ‘tweener’ set, it’s the official sport of the South. Only Columbus is above the Mason-Dixon line. Even NASCAR has northern cities Cincinnati, Indy, Chicago, and Rochester (?) in the top ten.

by Benny Friedman on May 11, 2006 5:25 PM EDT reply actions  

Does she need comment? If the Conscience of a Nation is reading, that would be “no.”

by Orson Swindle on May 11, 2006 5:28 PM EDT reply actions  

Tragically, “Fulmer Cup” hasn’t generated enough volume to make it to Google Trends.

However, “Ron Mexico” has, and your number one city is…Alberquerque?? Charlotte (god, I hate Charlotte) and Atlanta follow, and Grant Hill’s old stomping grounds of Reston are fourth. Lil’ Vick’s appeal is more regional; Blacksburg leads, with Richmond, Roanoke and Charlottesville in not-so-hot pursuit.

/is surprised she hasn’t put her city at the top of the “Brodie Croyle” list
//I entered “[name redacted]” for shits and giggles and it told me that my query looked like spam.

by ACC_Expat on May 11, 2006 5:32 PM EDT reply actions  

doesn’t surprise B’ham is at the top. No pro teams to speak of in Alabama, and it’s home to tons of Auburn and Bama fans. There’ really nothing to do in B’ham except talk about and think about college football

by Roll Tide on May 11, 2006 5:32 PM EDT reply actions  

WTF…

“We’re sorry…but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can’t process your request right now.”

It worked for the first 5 searches or so, and now this. Not cool, Google.

by PeteJayhawk on May 11, 2006 5:37 PM EDT reply actions  

EDSBS Labs pwnz Google Labs. Can they make this, eh?

by Orson Swindle on May 11, 2006 5:41 PM EDT reply actions  

Oh, I did the “sex tourism” search, and India takes the blue ribbon going away…no German cities made the list. Two Canadian cities (Vancouver and Toronto) vs. one US city (NYC)…

/Brentford, UK made the list…

by ACC_Expat on May 11, 2006 5:50 PM EDT reply actions  

In defense as a Birmingham resident, I used to get a lot more work done before I discovered this site. Damn you, damn you all.

Roll Tide

by JR on May 11, 2006 6:37 PM EDT reply actions  

Top city searching BEER? Austin. I may need to relocate.

by tnirishfan on May 11, 2006 6:38 PM EDT reply actions  

pu%%y and gay porn are both #1 in Irvine, California. What a place.

by Auburn Fan on May 11, 2006 6:47 PM EDT reply actions  

Them Canadians are all over Midget.

by NewAZTiger on May 11, 2006 6:48 PM EDT reply actions  

Looks like Oregon State is the real “OSU” since Corvallis beats both Stillwater and Columbus. I have some questions, though, since Grove City is a suburb of Columbus and has a lot more hits.

by tbmd96 on May 11, 2006 6:50 PM EDT reply actions  

Cleveland Steamer = Indianapolis
Freaks

by tnirishfan on May 11, 2006 6:52 PM EDT reply actions  

Auburn Fan – you will also notice that Irvine is #1 for Dirty Sanchez

by JR on May 11, 2006 6:58 PM EDT reply actions  

Columbia is number one for Steve Spurrier (Gainesville is #2), and as evidence that Redskin fans like to pretend he didn’t exist, Washington is only in ninth.

by John on May 11, 2006 7:14 PM EDT reply actions  

The end all

Brokeback – New York, NY and Irvine, CA

by The Dude on May 11, 2006 7:28 PM EDT reply actions  

Try some creative spellings. The folks in Edmonton want “dimonds” more than the folks in Chicago, but just barely.

by Austin Dave on May 11, 2006 7:37 PM EDT reply actions  

As someone who works in Anaheim and lives in Newport, both of which are extremely close to Irvine, and as someone who has dated a girl from Irvine, I can only concur with Auburn Fan and JR, “What a place!”

by socalirish on May 11, 2006 7:40 PM EDT reply actions  

and I don’t know what pusy means in Riga Latvia (1), but I can guess what it means in Chicago (10).
1. Riga Latvia
2. Zagreb Hrvatska
3. Vilnius Lithuania
4. Bucharest Romania
5. Ljubljana Slovenia
6. Delhi India
7. Ankara Turkey
8. Istanbul Turkey
9. Warsaw Poland
10. Chicago United States

by Austin Dave on May 11, 2006 7:40 PM EDT reply actions  

It means those fu**ers in Chicago can’t spell!

by socalirish on May 11, 2006 7:41 PM EDT reply actions  

and look who wants “penus”:
1. Miami United States
 2. Houston United States
 3. Los Angeles United States
 4. Birmingham United Kingdom
 5. Irvine United States
 6. San Diego United States
 7. Brentford United Kingdom
 8. Manchester United Kingdom
 9. Chicago United States
 10. Dallas United States

by Austin Dave on May 11, 2006 7:43 PM EDT reply actions  

where the fuck is brentford UK? those sick bastards

by Brian on May 11, 2006 7:54 PM EDT reply actions  

In terms of the 12th man, Seattle has nothing on College Station.

by John on May 11, 2006 7:59 PM EDT reply actions  

and the people of St. Louis (of course) want to know about George Busch:
1. St Louis United States
2. Santiago Chile
3. Frankfurt Am Main Germany

by Austin Dave on May 11, 2006 8:00 PM EDT reply actions  

I thought to myself, what filth hasn’t been looked up yet? So I searched on c*nt and it came up:

1. Tehran Iran
2. Milton Keynes United Kingdom
3. Perth Australia
4. Brisbane Australia
5. Chennai India
6. Delhi India
7. Manchester United Kingdom
8. Poplar United Kingdom
9. Auckland New Zealand
10.Sydney Australia

First place defies comment.

by DC Trojan on May 11, 2006 8:39 PM EDT reply actions  

Helsinki is #1 in Ron Jeremy searches. This means something, but I don’t know what.

by PeteJayhawk on May 11, 2006 9:02 PM EDT reply actions  

Even better? Dublin and Oslo are 1-2 for David Hasselhoff. No German cities in sight.

This is the best timekiller ever.

by PeteJayhawk on May 11, 2006 9:12 PM EDT reply actions  

Even stranger? #1 in searching for bukkake? Rome, Italy. Crazy pope and his fellow Catholics.

by Andrew on May 11, 2006 9:34 PM EDT reply actions  

I hate to think about what the NSA is going to be doing with this information…

by italiangator on May 11, 2006 10:14 PM EDT reply actions  

Fun Fact: Chicago #1 in the USofA for both “Penis” and “Vagina” inquiries.

by Erik on May 11, 2006 10:39 PM EDT reply actions  

I love this one!

John Daly:

1. Dublin Ireland (In a Landslide!)
2. Austin Texas (with less than half)

by Erik on May 11, 2006 10:47 PM EDT reply actions  

Damn Chicago is freaksville! number 2 on anal sex.

Turkey is ranked 1 and 3.

Atlanta # 9

by dub on May 11, 2006 10:48 PM EDT reply actions  

Have all the South Carolina fans moved overseas?? Cocks =

1. Milton Keynes United Kingdom
   
2. Birmingham United Kingdom
   
3. Perth Australia
   
4. Auckland New Zealand
   
5. Brisbane Australia
   
6. Melbourne Australia
   
7. Sydney Australia
   
8. Brentford United Kingdom
   
9. Manchester United Kingdom
   
10. London United Kingdom

by baconboy on May 11, 2006 11:04 PM EDT reply actions  

It seems Raleigh has lost its grip on “badonkadonk.”

Damn you, Rochester!

by Steven on May 11, 2006 11:22 PM EDT reply actions  

the difference between nut and nutt pretty much sums up the electorate.

by NewAZTiger on May 12, 2006 12:14 AM EDT reply actions  

Ha! Now who’s the REAL “Carolina?”

Take that, UNCarolina!

by Stephen Orr Spurrier on May 12, 2006 12:59 AM EDT reply actions  

Tampa ranks number 1 in camel toe.

by mss on May 12, 2006 1:38 AM EDT reply actions  

I’ts not supposed to be a population size thing — this is supposedly ranked by proportion of searches. But there is some kind of filtering on population size, because searches seem to turn up towns of roughly the same size.

“college basketball” the same kind of thing as “college football”:

1. Louisville
2. Raleigh
3. Kansas City
4. Cincinnati
5. Indianapolis

by statprof on May 12, 2006 7:22 AM EDT reply actions  

Where’s Columbus???

“Cadillac Escalade”

1. Miami United States
2. Irvine United States
3. Phoenix United States
4. Tampa United States
5. Montreal Canada
6. Dallas United States
7. Houston United States
8. San Diego United States
9. Los Angeles United States
10. Atlanta United States

by Andy on May 12, 2006 7:44 AM EDT reply actions  

Rim Job:

1. Chicago
2. Toronto
3. San Fransisco
4. LA

by au03 on May 12, 2006 7:46 AM EDT reply actions  

Birmingham is finally first in something football-related? w00t! MARS, BITCHES1one

by Doug on May 12, 2006 8:29 AM EDT reply actions  

I am now offically ruined at my job today. Thanks EDSBS!

by Odell 51 on May 12, 2006 9:21 AM EDT reply actions  

> Tampa, Atlanta and Houston don’t quite fit the ‘tweener
> Label. However, they are chock full of Alums from major
> football loving institutions.

If that’s the case, where’s Dallas? Just about every Big 12 school’s alumni seems to find their way there eventually

by R.D. Baker on May 12, 2006 9:24 AM EDT reply actions  

I googled Fighting Irish, and got this:

1. Dublin Ireland
2. Indianapolis United States
3. Philadelphia United States
4. Chicago United States
5. St Louis United States
6. Washington United States
7. Toronto Canada
8. Atlanta United States
9. New York United States
10. Los Angeles United States

Now that is a national fanbase.

But what I find to be the most intruiging part of the search is the graph above the geographical areas, that indicates volume of stories with in correlation with hit volume on the search words. The ND-OSU Fiesta bowl generated insane loads of traffic, compared with the rest of our season. Also, the hiring of Charlie weis saw a massvie spike in searches. This tool is incredible, just from a statistical analysis standpoint.

Oh, and try doing “DUI”. 1st place goes to Littleton, colorado (yes, that Littleton), but take a look at the news stories that pop up on the right side of the screen. Do those count for extra Fulmer Cup points?

by Wooderson on May 12, 2006 9:57 AM EDT reply actions  

as a southerner transplanted to chicago a little over a year ago, I can’t say these results really suprise me…Chicago is full of sick fucks

by matt on May 12, 2006 10:28 AM EDT reply actions  

Results for Cleveland Steamer:

1. Indianapolis
         
2. Louisville
         
3. Cincinnati
         
4. Detroit
         
5. Cleveland
         
6. St Louis
         
7. Raleigh
         
8. Pittsburgh
         
9. Columbus
         
10.Chicago

Thanks Orson, another day of productivity lost because of edsbs!

by bitterhorn on May 12, 2006 10:32 AM EDT reply actions  

“Tailgating” is indeed a southern sport:
1. Baton Rouge United States
2. Columbia United States
3. Des Moines United States
4. Cincinnati United States
5. Atlanta United States
6. Charlotte United States
7. Raleigh United States

by Russ on May 12, 2006 11:05 AM EDT reply actions  

…and people in Orlando said I was crazy when I declared just how much people in Birmingham are obsessed with college football. At least my intuition is now backed by Google stats.

by Nico on May 12, 2006 11:12 AM EDT reply actions  

I must proclaim that Cincinnati is not located in the South! That is a big river. Not in terms of physical geography, more in terms of social disparity. Take it from a resident/native.

by Odell 51 on May 12, 2006 11:46 AM EDT reply actions  

“I must proclaim that Cincinnati is not located in the South!”

Then why is their airport in Kentucky?

by bitterhorn on May 12, 2006 11:52 AM EDT reply actions  

Top city for “Doobie”

You guessed it..Austin, TX

by Chris on May 12, 2006 11:52 AM EDT reply actions  

Typed in “crunk”…got exactly what I thought would be there…

1. Atlanta United States (Lil Jon shouts “Yeeeeeaaahhh”)
   

The rest:
2. Charlotte United States
3. Orlando United States
4. Miami United States
5. St Louis United States
6. Tampa United States
7. Chicago United States
8. Boston United States
9. Irvine United States
10. Houston United States

by Geaux Irish on May 12, 2006 1:19 PM EDT reply actions  

WHUUUUUT?

by Orson Swindle on May 12, 2006 1:20 PM EDT reply actions  

Who would have thought nashville is the leader in “redneck”?

by FreeShoesU on May 12, 2006 1:36 PM EDT reply actions  

Then why is their airport in Kentucky?

I really honestly don’t know. Something to do with an illiterate dirt farmer named Cletus/path of least resistance/ kentucky good ol’ boys.

All the above, or take your pick.

by Odell 51 on May 12, 2006 1:52 PM EDT reply actions  

Did you read the fine print? It’s not the percentage of searches by that city for that topic vs the rest of the world. It’s the percentage of searches by that city for that topic vs the total number of searches FOR THAT CITY. I think that’s where your popluation equality comes in.

by RedTide on May 12, 2006 3:36 PM EDT reply actions  

What’s with the Slovakian obsession with koalas?

by Chg on May 12, 2006 3:53 PM EDT reply actions  

Regarding #52, I assume you are referring to the “nut” searchers being so out of touch with average Americans they can’t even spell Houston’s name right. Either that, or they really are looking for nuts.

Either way, I think you’re right about it saying summing up the electorate.

by Chg on May 12, 2006 4:20 PM EDT reply actions  

NAMBLA

1. San Diego United States
2. Philadelphia United States
3. Denver United States
4. Portland United States
5. Pleasanton United States
6. Washington United States
7. Austin United States
8. Boston United States
9. San Francisco United States
10. Los Angeles United States

by fattus on May 12, 2006 5:17 PM EDT reply actions  

“Boob Job” – you get what you would expect (LA, Miami, Tampa, etc), but there is a shocking #2 – Salt Lake City. Take that Mormonism! As a side note, “polygomy” has resounding interest in South America, and SLC is the only U.S. city that hits the top ten, coming in at 6th.

Also, in comment 17, Benny Friedman noted that college football is the sport of the South, and all but one city in the list is south of the Mason-Dixon. I would suggest that Mr Friedman use google maps to locate Omaha (#2 on the list). Not only is it north of the Mason-Dixon, it is west of the Mississippi, and therefore not even in the realm of dividing line. For shame sir bad geography!

by Lazer on May 12, 2006 6:42 PM EDT reply actions  

Sweater vest:
1. Chicago United States
         
2. New York United States
         
3. San Francisco United States
         
4. Atlanta United States
         
5. Los Angeles United States

You’re letting your man down, Ohio.

by rob on May 12, 2006 6:47 PM EDT reply actions  

Badonkadonk?!? You guys kill me!!

by Nupe in VA on May 13, 2006 10:01 AM EDT reply actions  

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