# A is for Amazon, B is for Best Buy -- The ABCs of Google **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 15, 2011, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-is-for-amazon-b-is-for-best-buy-the-abcs-of-google/574812 "2011-03-15T17:46:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-is-for-amazon-b-is-for-best-buy-the-abcs-of-google/574812/1 "2011-03-15T17:46:26Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-is-for-amazon-b-is-for-best-buy-the-abcs-of-google/574812/2 "2011-03-15T19:35:24Z")
So, do these come up via popularity or do some of these places pay for the privledge? ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-is-for-amazon-b-is-for-best-buy-the-abcs-of-google/574812/3 "2011-03-15T19:37:25Z")
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.” ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-is-for-amazon-b-is-for-best-buy-the-abcs-of-google/574812/4 "2011-03-15T19:43:56Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![FrancisCastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b4bc9f/32.png) [@FrancisCastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrancisCastle)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-is-for-amazon-b-is-for-best-buy-the-abcs-of-google/574812/5 "2011-03-15T20:02:30Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-is-for-amazon-b-is-for-best-buy-the-abcs-of-google/574812/6 "2011-03-15T20:32:22Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-is-for-amazon-b-is-for-best-buy-the-abcs-of-google/574812/7 "2011-03-15T21:40:08Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > 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. Isn’t IP address geolocation fun? ---
**Author:** ![fubbleskag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fubbleskag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fubbleskag)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-is-for-amazon-b-is-for-best-buy-the-abcs-of-google/574812/8 "2011-03-15T23:27:40Z")
any list without [Zombo.com](http://Zombo.com) as Z is incorrect. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-is-for-amazon-b-is-for-best-buy-the-abcs-of-google/574812/9 "2011-03-16T03:50:16Z")
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)