Look around—those 17 other people next to you in the coffee shop hunched
over their laptops might be hunting the Web for kitty videos or Kate
Middleton's tanning habits. You, of course, are Googling much more
important things. But as a community, just how creative are we on the
Internet? Google knows. Its Google Zeitgeist project tracks by
geographic area how Internet users differ in their searches from search
terms that trend big nationally. Out of 51 major metro areas, Portland
is middling in its nonconformity at No. 22. The city whose search
patterns differ most from those in the rest of the U.S. is Birmingham,
Ala. Those cities whose searches are most in line with national norms
include Pittsburgh, Detroit and Chicago.
WWeek 2015