Or is it?

The blog Very Small Array put together this map of the United States last Friday by replacing the states’ names with the top suggestion offered by Google’s Autocomplete feature when you type each one in. Here’s what it found:

Seems to me a number of these are driven by students frantically trying to figure out their homework. (“Shoot! What was the Missouri Compromise?” Same deal for Massachusetts Bay Colony.)

According to the map, the first Autocomplete suggestion for “Rhode Island” is Rhode Island School of Design. But when I went to Google and typed in “Rhode Island” myself, the top suggestions were “Rhode Island College,” “Rhode Island DMV” and “Rhode Island Hospital.”

That’s probably because of Google’s new personalized results, which it unveiled about a year ago. What I saw may be the top three Autocomplete suggestions for people in Rhode Island when they type in the state’s name, whereas people nationwide are most likely looking for RISD. Just a guess, though.