A is for Amazon, B is for Best Buy -- The ABCs of Google

Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS)
#1

Amazon
Best Buy
Craigslist
DMV
eBay
Facebook
Google
Hulu
IKEA
Jet Blue
Kaiser
Lowe’s
Maps
Netflix
Open Table
Pandora
QWOP
REI
Southwest
Target
USPS
Verizon
Weather
Xbox
Yahoo
Zillow

Those are the top matches in Google’s auto-complete when you put in just one letter. It changes every so often, but that list is what showed up today. The secondary matches change more often. “J,” for example, goes Jet Blue, Java, Japan Tsunami, Japan Earthquake, J. Crew. The earthquake and tsunami searches obviously wouldn’t have been there a week ago.

Yeah, mundane and pointless, but it seems interesting to me.

#2

So, do these come up via popularity or do some of these places pay for the privledge?

#3

I wonder if these are personalized to your own location or search history. For example, I wondered about D=DMV, so I went to Google and my first suggestion for D was “dictionary.”

#4

I decided to do a comparison and several of mine were different:

DMV Dictionary
Hulu Hotmail
IKEA IRS
Jet Blue JC Penny
Kaiser Kroger
Maps MapQuest
Open Table Old Navy
REI Regions
USPS UPS
Yahoo YouTube
Zillow Zappos

Kroger and Regions are both regional companies; the others I’m guessing are somehow related to my browsing/search history.

#5

I’m bored at work today, so I thought I would do a comparison too. It does seem that the choices are related to where you are.
Hulu Hotmail
IKEA I-tunes
Jet Blue JS online (local newspaper)
Kaiser Kohl’s
Netflix NFL
Open Table Oshkosh
Pandora Packers
REI Resch Center
Southwest Scott Walker
Weather Walmart
Yahoo YouTube
Zillow Zappos

#6

With cookies blocked and no search history, I got several obvious regional results–local newspaper, colleges, etc. Try some single numerals too, and see if you don’t get some local TV and radio stations. Apparently Zumba is more popular than either Zappos or Zillow around here.

#7

Isn’t IP address geolocation fun?

#8

any list without Zombo.com as Z is incorrect.

#9

Definitely Montreal-centric for me. And just for fun, I searched numbers too! I clarified a few things in brackets.

air canada
bmo (Bank of Montreal)
canada 411
dictionnaire
ebay
facebook
google
hotmail
ikea
jean coutu (pharmacy)
kijiji (online buy/sell site)
lesPAC (buy/sell site)
mls
nhl (yay!)
omnivox (some local college software system I think)
poste canada
QWOP (game)
rbc (royal bank of Canada)
stm (Montreal transit system)
tsn (The Sports Network)
uqam (local university)
videotron (cable/internet/wireless provider)
weather
xe (currency exchange)
youtube
zellers (like Target, soon to be owned by them!)

127 hours
281 (cabaret in Montreal)
3m
411
511 (Transports Quebec)
649 (lotto)
7zip
8.9 earthquake japan
94.7 (radio)
007data (dunno)