What Cost Is Each State Obsessed With • Hacker News Board

Re: What Cost Is Each State Obsessed With

#11

Post by andrenotgiant » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 9:19 PM UTC

Tobani wrote: post #3

I think the methodology here is off. It may not be that People in Florida and Alabama are looking for abortion prices. It could be people in Georgia price shopping neighboring states, then looking for taxis to get across the border.

Right - best example of that is "How much does a fishing license cost in Montana". People outside Montana are probably going to drown out people inside Montana.

There aren't that many people in Montana

Re: What Cost Is Each State Obsessed With

#12

Post by stonogo » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 9:20 PM UTC

This is a horrible metric; tons of these are clearly people googling about things somewhere other than where they live (c.f. Alaska, "gallon of milk").

Re: What Cost Is Each State Obsessed With

#13

Post by sgnelson » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 9:28 PM UTC

As others have already stated, there are some problems with this "study." I'm too lazy to do this myself, but my guess is that when you actually redo this auto-complete search, and look at not just the top search, but rather the top 5 searches, you will find a lot of overlap in many of the state searches, which will probably show less state variation (with some exceptions of course, and possibly more regional homogeneity, which would be interesting.)

Re: What Cost Is Each State Obsessed With

#14

Post by goda90 » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 9:31 PM UTC

Funny when you've contributed to your state's thing at least twice. I wonder whether it's the humid heat, or the need to chill lots of beer and cheese that makes Wisconsin obsessed with electricity.

Re: What Cost Is Each State Obsessed With

#15

Post by mikestew » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 9:31 PM UTC

stonogo wrote: post #12

This is a horrible metric; tons of these are clearly people googling about things somewhere other than where they live (c.f. Alaska, "gallon of milk").

Other comments allude to it, but this one should be at the top as it gives a good example as to why the methodology is suspect: pretty sure people in AK know what a gallon of milk costs in Delta Junction. I, a WA resident, would have to look it up.

There are other, similar examples of course. Price of weed in CO? Yeah, maybe residents are looking, but I'm more inclined to think the girl in Detroit is wondering, "I'm paying $250/quarter for pot, I wonder how much it costs in states where it's legal?" If I want to know how much weed costs in WA (where it is also legal), I pull up the website of my local store, not ask Google.

Re: What Cost Is Each State Obsessed With

#16

Post by dimino » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 9:40 PM UTC

This study has ruined is ability to be reproduced, as whenever you attempt any of the searches, you get the study and many articles about the study, in the results, which reinforces the findings of the study.

It's a self-reinforcing study! The more you test it, the stronger its validity becomes!

Re: What Cost Is Each State Obsessed With

#17

Post by dsjoerg » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 9:59 PM UTC

Add 2015 to the title please.

Re: What Cost Is Each State Obsessed With

#18

Post by cosrnos » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 10:10 PM UTC

I'm not at all surprised to see what my hometown of Bismarck, ND is obsessed with.

Re: What Cost Is Each State Obsessed With

#19

Post by duaneb » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 10:28 PM UTC

cosrnos wrote: post #18

I'm not at all surprised to see what my hometown of Bismarck, ND is obsessed with.

Does "a minor" have a different meaning, or is there a thriving underage slavery ring there?

I suppose it could also be "a minor ticket" or "A Minor" (the scale).

Re: What Cost Is Each State Obsessed With

#20

Post by labster » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 10:35 PM UTC

duaneb wrote: post #19

cosrnos wrote: post #18

I'm not at all surprised to see what my hometown of Bismarck, ND is obsessed with.

Does "a minor" have a different meaning, or is there a thriving underage slavery ring there? I suppose it could also be "a minor ticket" or "A Minor" (the scale).

It costs a lot to import those Aeolian modes all the way from Greece to North Dakota.